15 Quotes by George Weigel

Optimism and pessimism are mere matters of optics, of how you look at things, and that can change from day to day, or with a new prescription for your glasses – or with a new set of ideological filters.

If moral relativism was legally absolutized in the name of tolerance, basic rights were also relativized and the door was open to totalitarianism.

Poland was a reminder to the world that there is more to history and power than brute force; the human spirit can bend the course of history in nobler directions. Culture drives history, over the long haul.

We must learn not to be afraid, we must rediscover a spirit of hope and a spirit of trust.

The failure of Lateran V was the prelude to the Reformation, which shattered the unity of the Christian West and set in motion the dynamics that eventually led to the European wars of religion. Failures of reform carry a high cost.

Ideas are not intellectuals’ toys: ideas have consequences, for good and for ill, in what even intellectuals sometimes call “the real world”.