High standards generally -- about workmanship and creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of art and much else -- far from being snobbish, are required to maintain decency in life.
Joseph EpsteinMy wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.
Joseph EpsteinThe reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely achieved; only death brings closure and then not always for those still living.
Joseph EpsteinThe pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.
Joseph EpsteinWhile reading writers of great formulatory power โ Henry James, Santayana, Proust โ I find I can scarcely get through a page without having to stop to record some lapidary sentence. Reading Henry James, for example, I have muttered to myself, "Cโmon, Henry, turn down the brilliance a notch, so I can get some reading done." I may be one of a very small number of people who have developed writerโs cramp while reading.
Joseph Epstein