Roosters: The cry of the male chicken is the most barbaric yawp in all of nature.

The purpose and function of government is not to preside over change but to prevent change. By political methods when unavoidable, by violence when convenient.

The rich can buy everything but health, virtue, friendship, wit, good looks, love, pride, intelligence, grace, and, if you need it, happiness.

One thing worse than self-hatred is chiggers.

A genius is always on duty; even his dreams are tax deductible.

Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.

In history-as-politics, the 'future' is that vacuum in time waiting to be filled with the antics of statesmen.