Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.

Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.

The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort.

A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.

Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.

as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status anxiety be altered.

The quickest way to stop noticing something, may be to buy it—just as the quickest way to stop appreciating someone may be to marry him or her.

A sharp decline in actual deprivation may, paradoxically, have been accompanied by an ongoing and even escalating sense of fear of deprivation.

Judged against eternity, how little of what agitates us makes any difference.

Each segment of the worm is directly reproduced as a whole worm, just as each cell of the American CEO can produce a new CEO.

Fear of death is worse than dying.

Pure truth like pure gold has been found unfit for circulation because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves.

Majoring in religion, listening to TV evangelists interpret the scriptures and dictate my offerings-I found my God inside myself-in every moment and piece of matter. Everything is animate.

It always hurts when you lose a secret.

I'm trying to be more of a gentleman.

Adopt the standard of perfection, because it is a perfect universe.

I have no problem walking in New York because I have a very brisk pace: By the time anyone recognizes me, it's too late, I'm four blocks away from them.

Pride dwells in the thought; the tongue can have but a very little share in it.

You climb to reach the summit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down.