Tony's Garden

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Only in some very special cases is comprehension the point of reading–in things like recipes and “reading material.” The point of reading is understanding, and comprehension is to understanding as getting wet is to swimming. You must do the one before you can hope to do the other, but you don’t…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company.” — Booker T. Washington BIRTHDAYS: 1598 Francisco Zurbarán, Spanish painter. 1706 Carlo Cecere, Italian composer, born in Grottole, Kingdom of Naples. Concerto per mandolino e archi 1867 Marie Curie, Polish and…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “There’s only one way to improve society. Present it with a single improved unit: yourself.” — Albert Jay Nock BIRTHDAYS: 1659 Theodor Schwartzkopff, German composer, born in the Free Imperial City of Ulm, Holy Roman Empire. Allemande and Chaconne 1753 Mikhail Kozlovsky, Russian sculptor. 1771 Alois Senefelder, German actor and inventor…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations BIRTHDAYS: 1666 Attilio Ariosti, Italian baroque…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Dare to think for yourself.” — Voltaire BIRTHDAYS: 1575 Guido Reni, Italian Baroque painter, born in Bologna, Papal States. 1590 Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the Italian nickname Gherardo delle Notti (“Gerard of the Nights”). 1779 Jan…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to health care, the ‘right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.” — Alexis de Tocqueville BIRTHDAYS:…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” — Milton Friedman BIRTHDAYS: 1500 Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor, goldsmith and author (Perseus). 1757 Antonio Canova, Italian sculptor, born in Possagno, Republic of Venice. 1849 William Merritt Chase, American impressionist painter, and educator…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.” — Friedrich August von Hayek BIRTHDAYS: 1291 Philippe de…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of…