The famous Florentine elegance, which attracts tourists to the shops on Via Tornabuoni and Via della Vigna Nuova, is characterized by austerity of line, simplicity, economy of effect.

Old money is fully as moronic as new money but it has inherited an appearance of cultivation.

Our language, once homely and colloquial, seeks to aggrandize our meanest activities with polysyllabic terms or it retreats from frankness into a stammering verbosity.

This grossly advertised wonder [Venice], this gold idol with clay feet, this trompe-l'oeil, this painted deception, this cliche-what intelligent iconoclast could fail to experience a destructive impulse in her presence?

For self-realization, a rebel demands a strong authority, a worthy opponent, God to his Lucifer.

There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing.

In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.