A Deadly Underestimation: The Dueling Words of Brutus and Antony

By |2023-10-02T17:35:50-05:00October 2nd, 2023|Categories: Great Books, Literature, Rome, St. John's College, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III, William Shakespeare|

The title of Shakespeare’s tragedy is misleading, in that "Julius Caesar" shows us much more about Antony and the friend who betrays Caesar, Brutus, than it does about the legendary leader of Rome. Brutus: “There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea [...]

Caves, Happiness, and Liberal Learning

By |2023-06-12T17:38:40-05:00June 11th, 2023|Categories: Eva Brann, Liberal Learning, Plato, Socrates, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

If Plato’s extended metaphor of the mind as depicted by the city is true, every human mind has the capacity to train its Guardians, curb the appetitive part of the soul, and live on the grassy plains in the sun above the cave. It’s a question of true learning. When Eva Brann describes a liberal [...]

Remembering in Gratitude Those Who Did Their Duty to the Republic

By |2023-06-02T11:47:54-05:00May 28th, 2023|Categories: Foreign Affairs, Memorial Day, Military, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Today I honor the men and women of the United States military who have sacrificed their lives while doing their duty to the Republic. For them, and their families, I ask God to bless them and keep them. And for the fallen of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army [...]

A Conservatism of Joy, Gratitude, and Love

By |2023-07-10T10:46:20-05:00December 18th, 2022|Categories: Cicero, Classics, Conservatism, Essential, Featured, Russell Kirk, Support The Imaginative Conservative, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Will you join us in our mission to pursue Truth, Goodness, and Beauty by making a gift to us today? I am yearning for conservative voices offering great depth, thoughtfulness, and dare we say, grace. Is it possible to be strong in conservative principles and to present those principles in a manner which is attractive, [...]

Learn, Study, Teach: The Wisdom of Confucius

By |2023-06-26T17:52:43-05:00October 23rd, 2022|Categories: Confucius, Eastern Thought, Philosophy, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

Does Confucius' goal of a peaceful and prosperous society built upon learning, virtue, and the Way go beyond reasonable expectation? The question is worthy of discussion. The Master said, To be silent and understand, to learn without tiring, never to weary of teaching others—this much I can do. (p.48, 7.2) Reading The Analects of Confucius (all [...]

Liberal Learning and Plato’s “Meno”: Interview With Eva Brann

By |2023-05-21T11:28:50-05:00September 3rd, 2022|Categories: Classics, E.B., Eva Brann, Liberal Learning, Meno, Plato, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

“First attend to the adjustment of your own soul, particularly the regulative liberal learning of your intellect, then project your internal economy on the world as social and political justice. The other way around is headless.”  – Eva Brann, The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates’ Conversations and Plato’s Writings Eva Brann is a [...]

Homer’s “Odyssey” Is a Gift

By |2022-08-13T10:36:36-05:00August 13th, 2022|Categories: Classics, Essential, Eva Brann, Featured, Great Books, Homer, Odyssey, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.” So begins Homer’s Odyssey. Long ago I launched my ship in pursuit of the true, the good, and [...]

Ten Books by Eva Brann: Spark Your Imagination

By |2022-08-08T10:42:49-05:00August 7th, 2022|Categories: Books, Essential, Eva Brann, Featured, St. John's College, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Our readers have come to know and to admire Eva Brann, Senior Contributor to The Imaginative Conservative and tutor at St. John’s College, who always challenges us with her insightful writings on liberal learning, the hidden treasures in Homer’s poems, the artful devices of the dialogues of Socrates, and the wonders found in “the conservatory of the imagination.” I [...]

A Response to “The Ukraine Crisis”

By |2022-03-31T21:05:19-05:00March 18th, 2022|Categories: Foreign Affairs, Ukraine, W. Winston Elliott III, War|

Evil has not changed its nature, just its face. When the dead of Ukraine are counted and we are asked where they are, will America, will we, reply “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Dr. Brad Birzer's recent essay, The Ukraine Crisis: Is It Time to Debate War?, asks many pertinent questions. He encourages Americans to engage [...]

A Response to Pat Buchanan’s “Coming Home at Last”

By |2021-08-20T15:55:42-05:00August 17th, 2021|Categories: Foreign Affairs, Pat Buchanan, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III, War|Tags: , |

Every empire had security reasons, to go along with economic ones, to justify permanent military occupation. I say this: Kill the terrorists. Destroy their bases. When necessary, go back and do it again. Don’t occupy foreign nations. As the United States pulls its troops out of Afghanistan after a 20-year war, The Imaginative Conservative looks back at [...]

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