Norbert Blei is a writer the way people used to be troubadours and minstrels, celebrating what he has seen and heart and felt in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of the early Sherwood Anderson. . . . Like Anderson, he is a lover, and his affection invests his writing with a singular charm.

When we have "second thoughts" about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.

Gourmet: Usually little more than a glutton festooned with credit cards.

The deepest and rarest kind of courage has nothing to do with feats or obstacles in the outside world; and, indeed, has nothing to do with the outside world - it is the courage to be who you are.

When we inform, we lead from strength; when we communicate, we lead from weakness—and it is precisely this confession of mortality that engages the ears, heads and hearts of those we want to enlist as allies in a common cause.

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.