Dagger in hand

A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Wednesday, August 07, 2002
 
Lileks has a (typically) great post today involving some impromptu comparative religious studies. This stuff is so sad. There was a time when Islamic civilization was the most progressive on earth. When innovations in Jew-hating were really a Christian specialty. (See, e.g., the Prioress's Tale in Chaucer). In fact, the vile blood libel that features so prominently today in Arab editorials and schoolbooks was actually invented by small-town Brits at a time when Jews were relatively well treated in Muslim countries. (Or so Paul Johnson informed me on my way to work this morning--books on tape are a wonderful thing.) So what happened?


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