Top 15 Jay Nordlinger Quotes

One more word on talking, before I stop talking, at least about this subject: You or I may not like the talker, but talk matters, much of the time. It is especially significant when the talker is lonely — when most around him are keeping mum.

Talk can be cheap, very cheap. It can also be costly. “Speak out!” we say. “Why are you afraid to speak out?” we say. In dictatorships, it can be very, very hard to speak out. Many people have been imprisoned or worse for talk. But even in democratic societies, talk can be hard. It can be hard not only in politics but also in high schools and families and churches and professional communities and other arenas. But even in democratic societies, talk can be hard. It can be hard not only in politics but also in high schools and families and churches and professional communities and other arenas.

[T]he entire country should man up. We are drowning in weenification and snowflakiness. Shall we grow a national pair?

Maybe baseball has to accept that it is now more like classical music than popular music, with football and basketball — and soccer? — being the Justin Biebers and Lady Gagas of sports. Baseball need not hang its head in shame. A lot of things that are good and worthy are not popular. And baseball is plenty popular, for heaven's sake.

Individuals are responsible for their actions. And yet . . . No man is an island. We are all subject to influences, good and bad.

More and more, I like Utah.

Too often, claims of “fake news” are the real fake news. We are taught, rightly, to be skeptical of the media (and indeed of most things). But it pays to be skeptical of their critics, taunters, and defamers, too.Jay Nordlinger added,

I grew up with the phrase "Believe the woman." It was almost a slogan. You didn't hear it much during the Clinton years.

There's a point at which left and right join.

More and more, I tune out when I see the word "elites," regarding it as a lazy Marxist slur, from both Left and Right. I still use it, when I believe it is absolutely the right word. But more and more, it makes me say, "Bye."

"Globalism" is often the most self-interested and "nationalist" thing you can do. It has been a bonanza to the United States, for sure. In capitalism, your narrowest interests are advanced by cooperation. A genius system.

People are always criticizing Twitter. "Twitter is crazy!" they say. I think that's misguided. Twitter is simply an avenue -- there are many -- by which people reveal who they are.

[T]he nutcase Left and the nutcase Right are alike in virtually every particular. They should get a room somewhere -- far from here.

Nemtsov sacrificed a lot for politics, for a freer Russia — and I’m not just talking about his life, his mortal life.

But understand them, people say. And one does. But sometimes understanding is not comforting or flattering to the understood.