I was brought up in southwestern Ontario where we were taught that Canadian patriotism should not withstand anything more than a five-dollar-a-month wage differential. Anything more than that and you went to Detroit.

But now, as throughout history, financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated.

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

In public administration good sense would seem to require that public expectation be kept at the lowest possible level in order to minimize eventual disappointment.

In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.

All writers know that on some golden mornings they are touched by the wand; they are on intimate terms with poetry and cosmic truth. I have experienced these moments myself. Their lesson is simple: It's a total illusion. And the danger in the illusion is that you will wait for those moments.