“πόλλ’ οἶδ’ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ’ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα”
– Archilochus
“A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing”
Bits and Bobs
A commonplace journal is, at heart, a curated collection of thoughts—borrowed and original—that matter. It’s less a diary of daily events and more a record of what resonates: lines from books, quotes from sermons, fragments of poetry, moments of insight, questions you’re still turning over.
Historically, theologians, poets, and scholars have kept commonplaces as a way of storing wisdom—not just for memory’s sake, but for meditation, study, and writing. It’s a tool for building a life of depth. In that sense, it’s not just a journal. It’s a way of paying attention.
Consider this something of a digital commonplace journal: a kind of public journal where I think in public. Here I jot down quotes and short form ideas that have influenced my thinking. Click “learn more” to see more of my thought in process.
Sacasas
“We need a practice of anamnesis, a remembering of reality outside of the digital cave of shadows. Maybe we just need to practice the discipline of refusing to drink from the waters of the digital stream in the first place.7 What matters most in this regard is obviously not our capacity to recall discrete bits of information. Rather it is the practice of remembering what is deep down at the heart of things, and holding that vision before us. This vision of the good, if we might so call it, has the power to move us to action, to sustain our labor and our care, to strengthen us against the alienating and disintegrating forces let loose in our world. Perhaps this is why Mnemosyne is the mother of the muses. Creative, intellectual, and perhaps even moral energy flows from such remembering.” – L. M. Sacasas (The Convivial Society: Vol. 6, No. 2)
Dante
“Postdating the Church surely are those traditions that are called “decretals,” which, while they are worthy of veneration for their apostolic authority, are still to be assigned, with absolutely no doubt, to a place lower than the fundamental Scriptures inasmuch as Christ chided the priests for doing the opposite. For when they had questioned him: “Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the ancients?” since they neglected to wash their hands Christ answered them, as Matthew bears witness: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition?” With this he clearly meant that tradition was to be given a lower place. For if the traditions of the Church postdate the Church, as we have explained, authority must not come to the Church from its traditions but to the traditions from the Church. Thus, those who hold only to traditions, as was said, are to be ousted from this gymnasium. It is necessary for anyone hunting for this truth to proceed by investigating the source of ecclesiastical authority.” – Dante Alighieri (Monarchia)
Wodehouse
“The drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G.K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.” – P. G. Wodehouse (Mr. Mulliner Speaking)
Augustine
“Only those books of Scripture which are called canonical have I learned to hold in such honor as to believe their authors have not erred in any way in writing them. But other authors I so read as not to deem everything in their works to be true, merely on account of their having so thought and written, whatever may have been their holiness and learning.” – Augustine (Epistle Ad Hieron)
Aquinas
“Nevertheless, sacred doctrine makes use of these authorities as extrinsic and probable arguments; but properly uses the authority of the canonical Scriptures as an incontrovertible proof, and the authority of the doctors of the Church as one that may properly be used, yet merely as probably. For our faith rests on the revelation made to the apostles and prophets who wrote the canonical books, and not on the revelations (if any such there are) made to other doctors.” – Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theolgiae 1a.Q1.8.A2)
Dante
“Certainly predating the Church are the Old and the New Testaments, which “he hath commanded as his covenant forever,” as the Prophet says. For this is what the Church says addressing her Bridegroom: “Draw me after thee.” Concurrent with the Church are to be revered those great Councils in which no believer doubts Christ’s presence—for we have Christ’s own statement to His disciples as He was about to ascend into heaven: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world,” as Matthew bears witness.” – Dante Alighieri (Monarchia)
Lewis
“Each generation exercises power over its successors: and each, in so far as it modifies the environment bequeathed to it and rebels against tradition, resists and limits the power of its predecessors. This modifies the picture which is sometimes painted of a progressive emancipation from tradition and a progressive control of natural processes resulting in a continual increase of human power . . . They are weaker, not stronger: for though we may have put wonderful machines in their hands we have pre-ordained how they are to use them. . . . The last men, far from being the heirs of power, will be of all men most subject to the dead hand of the great planners and conditioners and will themselves exercise least power upon the future.” – C. S. Lewis (The Abolition of Man)
Many Things 