Why do men go to zoos?

Chopin--Two embalmers at work upon a minor poetthe scent of tuberosesAutumn rain.

A government at bottom is nothing more than a group of men, and as a practical matter most of them are inferior men. ... Yet these nonentities, by the intellectual laziness of men in general ... are generally obeyed as a matter of duty (and) assumed to have a kind of wisdom that is superior to ordinary wisdom.

I roll out of my couch every morning with the more agreeable expectations.

Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.

If the average man is made in God's image, then a man such as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God, and so God may be jealous of him, and eager to see his superiority perish with his bodily frame.

[A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.