one sank into the ancient sin of anomie when challenges failed.

Ardent, intelligent, sweet, sensitive, cultivated, erudite. These are the adjectives of praise in an androgynous world. Those who consider them epithets of shame or folly ought not to be trusted with leadership, for they will be men hot for power and revenge, certain of right and wrong.

Life has this in common with prizefighting: if you've received a belly blow, it's likely to be followed by a right to the jaw.

Is there any vanity greater than the vanity of those who believe themselves without it?

Male friends do not always face each other; they stand side by side, facing the world.

Odd, the years it took to learn one simple fact: that the prize just ahead, the next job, publication, love affair, marriage always seemed to hold the key to satisfaction but never, in the longer run, sufficed.

Ideas move fast when their time comes.