"Plague on it! what madness this is, to punish one's self because one is unfortunate, and not to lessen, but to increase one's ills! You ought to display, in this matter also, that decent behaviour and modesty which has characterised all your life: for there is such a thing as self-restraint in grief also. You … Continue reading From Seneca’s consolation to Marcia
Author: TH1
From Seneca’s consolation to Polybius
"It is ... a great consolation to reflect that what has happened to us has happened to everyone before us and will happen to everyone after us. In my opinion, nature has made her cruellest acts affect all men alike, in order that the universality of their lot might console them for its hardship." "We … Continue reading From Seneca’s consolation to Polybius
Improbable witnesses on the annihilation of Gaza
“They’re starting to lose ... support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” – former President Joe Biden, December 2023.1 "It is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes." – former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, June 2025.2 "The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is, they have no … Continue reading Improbable witnesses on the annihilation of Gaza
A message from a friend of Liberty
THE liberty of the press is the birth-right of a BRITON, and is justly esteemed the firmest bulwark of the liberties of this country. It has been the terror of all bad ministers; for their dark and dangerous designs, or their weakness, inability, and duplicity, have thus been detected and shewn to the public, generally … Continue reading A message from a friend of Liberty
A Letter on the Gaza Peace Plan
29 September, 2025. There is little, one might have thought, that the rulers of the world could have done, to make themselves more odious to decent people. And yet, as ever, they have found a way: Sir Tony Blair, it is said, is in discussions to lead “a post-war transitional authority in Gaza”, named the … Continue reading A Letter on the Gaza Peace Plan
Sir Keir Starmer meets Donald Trump
A messenger was dispatched half a day's journey before us, to give the king notice of my approach; and to desire that his majesty would please to appoint a day and hour, when it would be his gracious pleasure, that I might have the honour to lick the dust before his footstool. This is the … Continue reading Sir Keir Starmer meets Donald Trump
A Dialogue on Gaza
A: I understand that you wanted to put some questions to me regarding the atrocities that we see daily in the Gaza Strip, and the defences—the hideous defences—so often made by the venerable members of our political and media establishment. B: Yes—I thought that it would be useful for us to survey some of the … Continue reading A Dialogue on Gaza
Thomas Hobbes explains climate change denialism
"Adhaerence To Custome, From Ignorance Of The Nature Of Right And Wrong Ignorance of the causes, and originall constitution of Right, Equity, Law, and Justice, disposeth a man to make Custome and Example the rule of his actions; in such manner, as to think that Unjust which it hath been the custome to punish; and … Continue reading Thomas Hobbes explains climate change denialism
English government summarised
“It is agreed to by all really disinterested persons, that the government of England—not any individual government, but the general system—is one mass of immorality in practice, whatever it may be in theory. The whole working is founded on a system of conventional hypocrisy from first to last. The general modes of doing business are … Continue reading English government summarised
A Letter on the British Constitution
A new book by Lord Hennessy and Andrew Blick (Could It Happen Here? The Day a Prime Minister Refuses to Resign) makes amusing and instructive reading: the authors speculate about what might ensue if a right-wing populist prime minister were to lose his majority in the House of Commons, and attempted to cling to power … Continue reading A Letter on the British Constitution
Notes in the Margins of the Days 