The natural rhythm of human life is routine punctuated by orgies.

God isn't the son of Memory; He's the son of Immediate Experience. You can't worship a spirit in spirit, unless you do it now. Wallowing in the past may be good literature. As wisdom, it's hopeless. Time Regained is Paradise Lost, and Time Lost is Paradise Regained. Let the dead bury their dead. If you want to live at every moment as it presents itself, you've got to die to every other moment.

What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when anthrax bombs are popping all around you?

It had the taste of an apple peeled with a steel knife. (Sebastian Barnack assessing a Roederer 1916 champagne in Time Must Have a Stop)

War is often described as a law of nature-this is not true: Among the lower animals, war is unknown.

To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme.

All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant.