The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has retired from history to pet itself.

Gluttony and Lust are the only sins that abuse something that is essential to our survival.

The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has retired from history to pet itself.

There is a middlebrow snobbery in America that praises everything on public television and disdains everything on the commercial networks as a blight.

Love wants to enjoy in other ways the human being whom it has enjoyed in bed; it looks forward to having breakfast.

The most important fact about our shopping malls, as distinct from the ordinary shopping centers where we go for our groceries, is that we do not need most of what they sell, not even for our pleasure or entertainment, not really even for a sensation of luxury. Little in them is essential to our survival, our work, or our play, and the same is true of the boutiques that multiply on our streets.

We are at full stop. We think we have arrived.