...the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription.

To be simple is the best thing in the world.

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

And my haunting instinct that somehow good was not merely a tool to be used, but a relic to be guarded, like the goods from Crusoe's ship--even that had been the wild whisper of something originally wise, for, according to Christianity, we were indeed the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world.

One pleasure attached to growing older is that many things seem to be growing younger; growing fresher and more lively than we once supposed them to be.