Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.

To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being.

The Japanese have become so smitten with the Western condiment - its texture as silky as a kimono, its tang as understated as the tang of Zen - that today they have a word for mayonnaise junkie: mayora.

The most important thing in life is style. That is, the style of ones existence-the characteristic mode of ones actions-is basically, ultimately what matters. For if man defines himself by doing, then style is doubly definitive, because style describes the doing.

Maybe most people were fundamentally contradictory. The real people at any rate.

There are two lost continents.... We are one: the lovers.

Western civilization was declining too fast for comfort, but too slowly to be very exciting.