Cruelty depends on an understanding of cruelty, and the ability to choose against it. Or to choose to ignore it.

I don't mind if smiles come at my expense, I'm a small price to pay.

I'm less worried about accomplishment - as younger people always can't help but be - and more concerned with spending my time well, spending time with my family, and reading, learning things.

Farmers since the beginning of time have been feeding the world very successfully without systematically abusing animals or destroying the environment. But we're breeding food that is less safe for us, it tastes much worse than it ever has in history, and it's wreaking havoc on the environment in a way that it never did in history before. All in the interest of it being cheap.

I can only hold on to the things I want to lose.

Jed Perl writes precisely and ecstatically. Antoine' s Alphabet is a history and a fairy tale, a work of criticism, and a work of art.

Something having been done just about everywhere just about always is no kind of justification for doing it now.