Most write to make themselves heard; I write to shut others up.
Fiction is more confining than history, for fiction must be plausible, while history need only be real.
Problem, n. In mathematics: A problem. In social science: A state of affairs with which one is unhappy.
The end of civilization will likely not be preceded by general alarm over civilization’s impending end.
Problematic, against all odds, has become a useful word, as a sign to stop reading.
Reasonable, adj. Good at thinking of reasons.
Democracy and war are the most efficient mechanisms for becoming angry at large groups of people one has never met.
A belief, we are told, is a thought you keep thinking; in fact you stopped thinking it some time ago, if it was ever a thought at all.
It is possible, indeed common, to be both boring and weird.
Cultural epochs used to last for centuries, then generations, then decades, now a year or two, and soon it will be fifteen minutes.