"And you were right not to doubt."

Thus said President Ronald Reagan to the assembled at Pointe Du Hoc commemorating the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. That sentence, besides kindly assuring the surviving veterans of the justice of their cause, boldly challenged a key assumption of modernity. It has always been one of my favorites.

At the First Things blog, R.R. Reno makes a similar point by highlighting the dangers of a too critical mind, a mind trained to question everything, to remain forever open. Reno instructs us that an intellectual posture of this nature carries with it at least as many costs as it does benefits. I would only add that it leads also to a life filled with fear. At best, a life passed, one can hardly say lived, forever frozen in exactly the same spot. It's a very short piece and definitely worth a look.