The American experience stirred mankind from discovery to exploration. From the cautious quest for what they knew (or thought they knew) was out there, into an enthusiastic reaching to the unknown. These are two substantially different kinds of human enterprise.

destruction is easy for humans but creation is too difficult.

Until now when we have started to talk about the uniqueness of America we have almost always ended by comparing ourselves to Europe. Toward her we have felt all the attraction and repulsions of Oedipus

Americans expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly ... to revere God and be God.

Not so many years ago there was no simpler or more intelligible notion than that of going on a journey. Travel -movement through space -provided the universal metaphor for change. One of the subtle confusions -perhaps one of the secret terrors -of modern life is that we have lost this refuge. No longer do we move through space as we once did.

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.