A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.

Nothing could be more reckless than to base one's moral philosophy on the latest pronouncements of science.

The majority of American writers today have chosen passive non-resistance to things as they are, producing sloughs of poetry about their personal angst and anomie, cascades of short stories and rivers of novels obsessed with the nuances of domestic relationships - suburban hanky-panky - chic boutique shopping mall literary soap opera. When they do speak out on matters of controversy they attack not the evils of our time but fellow writers who may insist on complaining.

Charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.

Henry James was our master of periphrasis -- the fine art of saying as little as possible in the greatest number of words.

Romanticism was more than merely an alternative to a sterile classicism; romanticism made possible, especially in art, a great expansion of the human consciousness.

What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.