No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.

We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.

Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives- from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango - with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to-date scripts for actors on the tourists' stage.

More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge.

The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.

We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.

A pseudo-event ... comes about because someone has planned it, planted, or incited it. Typically, it is not a train wreck or an earthquake, but an interview.