Man's deliberate destruction of his own habitat -- planet Earth -- could serve as a mighty theme for a mighty book worthy of a modern Melville or Tolstoy. But our best fictioneers confine themselves to domestic drama -- soap opera with literary trimmings.

I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth, in simple fact.

Without courage, all other virtues are useless.

And if the computer gives you any back talk, pour some well-sugared office coffee into its evil little silicon brain.

Of all the featherless beasts, only man, chained by his self-imposed slavery to the clock, denies the elemental fire and proceeds as best he can about his business, suffering quietly, martyr to his madness. Much to learn.

Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.

Spartacus, like Jesus, was also crucified by the Romans. And for equally good reasons.