“A man with no children can easily be lulled into a sense that time is standing still. It’s not. It’s marching past us, relentlessly. Having a child growing and changing before your eyes makes this unavoidably clear.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“when fertility rates began collapsing in the late 1960s, another demographic transition was occurring, the result of a fundamental restructuring: People no longer put children at the center of their lives. Instead, they put themselves there.”
— Jonathan V Last
“Anyone can dig a ditch. There’s no way to dig smarter. Or dig faster. Having a baby is like being assigned to dig a ditch. That goes all the way to the horizon.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“One of the mitigating benefits of children is that they make a Lego habit more respectable.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“If you do believe in God, and your first instinct in all things must be gratitude: for creation, or love, for mercy.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“The modern virtues fail because they concern the outer self, the human facade, the part of ourselves the world sees most readily – while the classical virtues form an organizing framework for our inner selves… for our souls.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“Virtues are the internal qualities that allow us to be our best selves and enable us to lead complete and fulfilling lives.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“Believe it or not, philosophy has consequences.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“Justice is the virtue we ‘d rather have done unto others than practiced on ourselves.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“To raise a child is to submit to a staggering amount of work, much of which is deeply unpleasant. It would be crazy to have children if they weren’t so damned important.”
— Jonathan V. Last
“Aristotle deemed courage to be the first virtue, because it makes all the other possible.”
— Jonathan V. Last