For purposes of conversation the world can be divided into two classes: too young to talk, and too old to listen.
Dec 292014
Nothing
You cannot have a contemporary prison without contemporary furniture.
—Clouseau
Dec 252014
The conservative rarely vouches for the health of the patient; he merely prefers the disease to the cure.
Nov 112014
Irony is the last vestige of aristocracy.
Oct 082014
Shame seems to have peaked as a verb just when it has disappeared as a noun.
Jul 252014
Attacks on greatness rain uselessly on civilization’s outer walls; praise for mediocrity bores from within.
Jul 102014
The height of a civilization can be judged by its mathematics and its music.
Jul 082014
In a democratic age manners and mores spread from top to bottom, then from bottom back to top.
Jul 042014
Behind the insult “calculating” a whole moral history of humanity lies hidden.
Jun 192014
Anti-Semite: A person whom Jews hate.
Jun 102014
A civilization with elaborate manners is already half-dead.