The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.

the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life.

Hypotyposis is the rhetorical effect by which words succeed in rendering a visual scene.

Libraries have always been humanities' way of preserving its collective wisdom

Yes, I know, it's not the truth, but in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges.

Is it worth it to be born if you cannot remember it later? And, technically speaking, had I ever been born? Other people, of course, said that I was. As far as I know, I was born in late April, at sixty years of age, in a hospital room.

I have to admit that I only read War and Peace when I was 40. But I knew the basics before then.