Proverbs save us the trouble of thinking. What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.

Is it possible to grow wiser without knowing it? One hopes so. We all hope so.

Appearance versus reality? Appearance is reality, God damn it!

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

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

The critics say that Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony has no form. They are wrong; it has the form of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.