Once, passing a second-hand bookstore, I spotted in its window a book I very much wanted to acquire. Knowing the bookseller, I dashed into his shop, grabbed the book and, while advancing towards him at the cash desk, exclaimed that I had been willing to kill for it.
“How much?” I asked, catching my breath.
“Eighty dollars,” he replied, nonchalantly.
I told him I could not possibly pay that, and sadly released the book from my grip.
“Well,” the bookseller observed. “Thanks to this exercise, we know the value you place on a human life. Less than eighty dollars.”
In those days, I think I would have drawn the line at thirty. But to his moral credit and mine, the bookseller and I were finally able to agree on fifty-five dollars (plus sales tax).
David Warren, “Virtual March for Life”, Essays in Idleness, 2020-05-14.
November 22, 2025
QotD: The value of a human life
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