Arrogance rides triumphantly through the gates, barely glancing at the old woman about to cut the rope and spring shut the trap.
Neat trick: to be roused to ambition and reconciled to one's mediocrity at the same time.
Art chooses its constraints.
Abyss-mongering makes professors and poets feel daring.
The morose one refuses to smile even when he has just had his teeth cleaned.
Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.