All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
Joseph EpsteinThe pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.
Joseph EpsteinOne of the pleasures of being a Jew, I don't have to tell you, it allows you anti-Semitism.
Joseph EpsteinWhat, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps mostof all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life and the calculations of public life.
Joseph EpsteinI am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me.
Joseph EpsteinCulture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.
Joseph EpsteinWhile reading writers of great formulatory power โ Henry James, Santayana, Proust โ I find I can scarcely get through a page without having to stop to record some lapidary sentence. Reading Henry James, for example, I have muttered to myself, "Cโmon, Henry, turn down the brilliance a notch, so I can get some reading done." I may be one of a very small number of people who have developed writerโs cramp while reading.
Joseph Epstein