Aphorism, of all prose, is the least hospitable.
Aug 202021
Aug 192021
The praise of reviewers tends to be bland and uninformative, with exceptions. One can be certain that an actor’s “riveting” performance was far worse than usual, and that a “lyrical” novel will be unreadable.
Aug 182021
You don’t need to love what I love, just hate what I hate.
Aug 172021
It is a fundamental human desire to hear one’s own eulogy.
Aug 162021
When abusing someone, always pick on qualities that he was born with or cannot change: tomorrow he may be sober.
Aug 132021
Modern political theory has become bloodless, shunting off questions of wise and just policy to sister disciplines like economics and moral philosophy, and busying itself with quibbles over standing.
Aug 122021
The stupid American, as he is known the world over, mostly means the trusting American.
Aug 112021
Rome’s interests, to Caesar, are indistinguishable from his own.
Aug 102021
Identity is partly inherited, and partly chosen, and not at all declared.
Aug 092021
Our ancestors attributed to the gods the vicissitudes of the weather, and we attribute to the President the vicissitudes of the stock market.