You can't have the family farm without the family.

The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.

Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings; but they dream of being shepherds.

A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon.

Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history.

The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.

A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher.