literature is an instrument of a culture, not a summary of it.

Godlessness invariably produces vulgarity. Civilization is the product of belief.

To desire to be what one can be is purpose in life. There are no exterior forces. There are only interior forces. Who squanders talent praises death.

An essay is a thing of the imagination. If there is information in an essay, it is by-the-by, and if there is an opinion, one need not trust it for the long run. A genuine essay rarely has an educational, polemical, or sociopolitical use; it is the movement of a free mind at play.

Much of the academy on the humanities side, English departments in particular, no longer write what can pass for normal English.

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.

What I felt then I feel now: the inexorable, unchanging interior hum of doubt and hope.