I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill health or personal tragedy; she answered: “It was the footnotes”.

[T]here is one and only one way to possess that in which we are defective, therefore that which we need, therefore that which we want. Become it.

Sit a man on his ass with nothing to do but eat and the first thing that goes is his mind. It never fails.

You can't imbibe someone's success by f*cking them.

Ignorance is not bad faith. But persistence in ignorance is.

The demon got up. The demon said Fool. To think you can eat their food and not talk to them. To think you can take their money and not be afraid of them. To think you can depend on their company and not suffer from them.

When one culture has the big guns and the other has none, there is a certain predictablity about the outcome.