Which would be better, what sticks or what falls through? Or does the choice itself create the value? - Seamus Heaney

But every now and then, just weighing in is what it must come down to, and without any self-exculpation or self-pity.

It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir; that Tacitus was right and that peace is merely the desolation left behind after the decisive operations of merciless power.

That was their way, their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts they remembered hell.