Kāpēc jādomā, ka okupantu izraidīšana uz Krieviju ir viņiem kaut kāds sods? Tas, ka viņi negrib, liecina, ka tie gluži vienkārši neapzinās, ka atgriešanās dzimtenē ir laime.

Minska šobrīd ir tīrākā Eiropas pilsēta. Tiem, kas grib saprast Baltkrieviju, – tā ir liela Ventspils. Tādā ziņā, ka Ventspilī esošā kārtība var patikt vai nepatikt, bet tā ir prognozējama. To pašu var teikt par Baltkrieviju. Pieļauju, ka Lukašenko Eiropā daudziem krīt uz nerviem, jo nav ļāvis sagraut savu valsti. [..] Otra lieta ir cilvēku noskaņojums. Cilvēki mīl savu prezidentu, mīl savu valsti, un cilvēki ir priecīgi, jo sabiedrība ir sociāli nodrošināta, nav bezdarba, uz ielām nav ubagu, ir pamatīgas sociālas programmas ar domu par valsts un nācijas nākotni. Un cilvēki daudzas stingrās rokas īpatnības ir gatavi pieciest. Viņi uz ielām smaida. [..] Ir daudzi mazie komponenti, kas liecina – tur viss ir kārtībā.

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Esmu dzirdējis, ka liela daļa tā sauktās politiskās opozīcijas veido cilvēki, kuri mēģināja zagt no valsts kases. Tajā brīdī, kad viņus pieķēra pie rokas, viņi kļuva par politisko opozīciju. No malas to ir grūti pateikt, bet personīgi ticu, ka ļoti liela daļa patiesības tajā varētu būt. Nesaku, ka režīms ir balts un pūkains. Bet tas nav tā, kā to stāsta TV Panorāma. Ko es redzu par Baltkrieviju mūsu masu medijos, tā ir sabiedrības mānīšana. Agri vai vēlu ES sabruks un būs daudzas mazas nacionālas valstis. Kā tā bruks un cik smagi tas būs, grūti prognozēt. Tajā brīdī, kad ES bruks, Baltkrievija būs stabila un spēcīga valsts ar spēcīgu nāciju. Tur šī nācijas ideja ir ļoti pamatīga. Totalitārām valstīm pārmet, ka viņu ziņu raidījumi ir ļoti pozitīvi. Ieslēdzot baltkrievu televīzijas rīta programmu, es no viesnīcas izeju labā garastāvoklī. Man ir iedots foršs noskaņojums, un es gribu kaut ko labu izdarīt.

The spat came as De Botton revealed details of a temple to evoke more than 300m years of life on earth. Each centimetre of the tapering tower's interior has been designed to represent a million years and a narrow band of gold will illustrate the relatively tiny amount of time humans have walked the planet. The exterior would be inscribed with a binary code denoting the human genome sequence.

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The temple features a single door for visitors who will enter as if it were an art installation. The roof will be open to the elements and there could be fossils and geologically interesting rocks in the concrete walls.

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There is some irony for me in the fact that the man about whose philosophical views I have devoted, over years, a great deal of time to thinking, was, at least at the end of his life, a virulent racist, specifically an anti-semite. This fact is revealed by a fragment of a diary which survives among Frege's Nachlass, but which was not published with the rest by Professor Hans Hermes in Freges nachgelassene Schriften. The diary shows Frege to have been a man of extreme right-wing political opinions, bitterly opposed to the parliamentary system, democrats, liberals, Catholics, the French and, above all, Jews, who he thought ought to be deprived of political rights and, preferably, expelled from Germany. When I first read that diary, many years ago, I was deeply shocked, because I had revered Frege as an absolutely rational man, if, perhaps, not a very likeable one. I regret that the editors of Frege's Nachlass chose to suppress that particular item. From it I learned something about human beings which I should be sorry not to know; perhaps something about Europe, also.

"The translator dulls his brilliance, and must leave whole pages in the decent obscurity of Latin.."

"The early edition of Catullus contains a sentence which had been translated: “’Tis you I fear, you and your passions, so fatal to the young, both good and bad alike.” The new translation, while accurate, also explains why it had originally been diluted: “’Tis you I fear, you and your penis, so ready to molest good boys and bad alike.” Other passages once considered inappropriate have been restored: “Libo’s soft and subtle farting” in Catullus. Offending passages were not always deleted or altered; sometimes they were simply translated into another language. Greek was usually translated into Latin on the facing-page English text, and in the first edition of Martial, the offensive Latin was translated into Italian."