Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible.

Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings.

A poor American feels guilty at being poor, but less guilty than an American rentier who has inherited wealth but is doing nothingto increase it; what can the latter do but take to drink and psychoanalysis?

Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were.

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can't help wishing the iconoclasts had won.

Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villians from fiction.