Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.
Self-congratulation pleases only the speaker.
When a paradox is widely believed, it is no longer recognized as a paradox.
New York loves itself in an unkind and fanatical way.
Once wealth and beauty are gone, there is always rural life.
Irony dissolves sentiment, but occasionally a sentiment is strong enough to dissolve irony.