War is a beastly business, it is true, but one proof we are human is our ability to learn, even from it, how better to exist

Life is hard, we say. An oyster's life is worse. She lives motionless, soundless, her own cold ugly shape her only dissipation.

There are may of us who cannot but feel dismal about the future of various cultures. Often it is hard not to agree that we are becoming culinary nitwits, dependent upon fast foods and mass kitchens and megavitamins for our basically rotten nourishment.

When shall we live if not now?

France eats more conciously, more intelligently, than any other nation.

Probably no strychnine has sent as many husbands into their graves as mealtime scolding has, and nothing has driven more men into the arms of other women as the sound of a shrill whine at table.

It is hard and perhaps impossible for many people to recognize the difference between innocence and naiveté.