Sentimentality is the respect the cold-hearted pay to feeling.
The writer considers sayability before anything else.
Arrogance rides triumphantly through the gates, barely glancing at the old woman about to cut the rope and spring shut the trap.
Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children.
If I could do my life over, I would try to cleanse at least my pleasures of self-pity.
Comedy defends the commonplace; tragedy explodes it.