“The worshipers of Mammon have known for a long time that there is big money to be made from large numbers of people who have acquired a bad habit. There’s gold in them thar potheads”
Devoured by Cannabis, p. 3
On the Calendar
“The great procession of the year, sacred to our best human instincts with the accumulated reverence of ages—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday—leads those who walk in it, at least once every year, past all the great Christian facts, and, however careless and selfish be the preacher, will not leave it in his power to keep them from his people”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 79
Some Rotgut Likker
“The toxicity of a Woodstock joint was relatively low—a modest amount of THC. Today the levels can get a lot higher, just like the user. And there are a number of people who are now using extracts that are almost entirely pure THC. Whatever kick that mule had back in the seventies, it is about four to six times greater than that now. This is kind of like the difference between a Bud Light and a shot of Old Gym Sock Corn Whiskey”
Devoured by Cannabis, p. 2
Think, Then Say
“They all involve the simple truth that he who works for God must work with his best powers; and since among the effective powers of man the powers of plan and arrangement stand very high, the whole of the New Testament really implies that he who preaches must lay out the methods and ways of preaching as a merchant or soldier lays out a campaign of the market or the battle-field.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, pp. 77-78
Not an Even Match
“It wouldn’t do to let her debate Billy Jerome, which would be like throwing a stick of cotton candy at a flame thrower.”
Ecochondriacs, p. 175
If You Want the Congregation to Apply, Show Them How
“These last times grow very frequent with some men, till you have the race of clerical visionaries who think vast, dim, vague thoughts, and do no work. It is a danger of all ardent minds. The only salvation, if one finds himself verging to it, is an unsparing rule that no idea, however abstract, shall be every counted as satisfactorily received and grasped till it has opened to us its practical side and helped us somehow in our work”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 77
Stands to Reason
“It turns out that there are behaviors that are widely accepted at libertarian conferences that don’t really comport with the laws as they are currently structured. This is particularly the case if we are talking about fifteen-year-old girls, which we are.”
Ecochondriacs, p. 170
The Hotel Might Have Other Motives
“But you don’t save a planet—which doesn’t even need saving in the first place—by convincing hotel chains to try to get out of washing your towels every day. And showing the guests a little cardboard picture of a cute koala, the one that your unwashed towel will somehow mysteriously save”
Ecochondriacs, p. 168
Which is Why His Staff Would Stand Upwind
“He was an ugly little man, and dapper, and what he didn’t know about dirty politics wasn’t worth knowing. He looked like a civilized man, but if you looked straight into his brown eyes, you could see the sewage pumps. On a bad day you could smell them”
Ecochondriacs, p. 161
Or Very Dead
“His little simian nose meant that some of his fights had gotten a little personal, in that his adversaries would taunt him about it. But they were all very sorry now, either that or dead”
Ecochondriacs, p. 160