Fortunately, however, birds don't understand pep talks. Not even St. Francis'. Just imagine, he went on, preaching sermons to perfectly good thrushes and goldfinches and chiff-chaffs! What presumption! Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut and let the birds preach to him?

Christianity accepted as given a metaphysical system derived from several already existing and mutually incompatible systems.

What wonder, then, if human beings in their search for the divine have generally preferred to look within!

Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.

We participate in a tragedy; at a comedy we only look.

People travel for the same reason as they collect works of art: because the best people do it.

A competent portraitist knows how to imply the profile in the full face.