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

Various kinds of self-forgetting, usually accompanied by illusions and myths, make it possible to live without the intransigent facing of death-in the sense of always thinking about it and what it means for life and the things dear in life-which is characteristic of a serious life.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.

We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished.

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

The liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate but because he knows others worthy of consideration.

Law may prescribe that the male nipples be made equal to the female ones, but they still will not give milk.