Both the Freudian and the Platonic metaphors emphasize the considerable independence of and tension among the constituent parts of the psyche, a point that characterizes the human condition.

Organic as a dandelion seed, [the ship of our imagination] will carry us to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts

To read is to voyage through time.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

Philosophers and scientists confidently offer up traits said to be uniquely human, and the monkeys and apes casually knock them down -- toppling the pretension that humans constitute some sort of biological aristocracy among the beings on Earth.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

But I could be wrong.