The substance of my being has been informed by the books I learned to care for.

Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music.

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is.

The facile economic and psychological debunking of the theoretical life cannot do away with its irreducible beauties.

Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist.... Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an audience.

University convention submerges nature. It issues licenses, and hunting without one is forbidden.

The sirens sing sotto voce these days, and the young already have enough wax in their ears to pass them by without danger.