Anyone who writes enough can be rendered an idiot, or a genius, by the simple expedient of direct quotation.
We are pleased when the serious man clowns, dismayed when the clown turns serious.
To lie, cheat, and steal may be optimally adaptive, provided one maintains a reputation for never lying, cheating, or stealing.
Ability without ambition is tragedy: ambition without ability is farce.
A primary source, in translation, is a secondary source.
Children’s literature posits a compact between author and reader: though the reader may look like a frog to all the uncaring world, the author knows he is a handsome prince, and it can be their little secret. Harry Potter is children’s literature. So is Confederacy of Dunces.
Facts do not assemble into truths.
Almost anything can be put into a work of art, which is the artist’s problem, and almost anything can be got out of it, which is the critic’s.
Experts have replaced adults.
Footnote Zero, n. The original source of a dubious, often provably false, occasionally absurd claim repeated in numerous scholarly works.