Death isn't funny." "Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us — us humans — death is so sad that we must laugh at it.

Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them.

I don't know Who is cranking; I'm pleased He doesn't stop.

Never insult anyone by accident.

Beauty is not diminished by being shared.

The country and culture commonly known as "America" had had a badly split personality all through its history. Its overt laws were almost always puritanical for a people whose covert behavior tended to be Rabelaisian; its major religions were all Apollonian in varying degrees---its religious revivals were often hysterical in a fashion almost Dionysian.

For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.