Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Most of the time, thank goodness, we suffer quite stupidly and unreflectingly, like the animals.

Do you really want me to show you how you're pushing me, Tessnia? What you do to me?

I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish.

Nerds get caught up in minutiae, because there is a tremendous and fulfilling sense of control in understanding every single detail of a thing more than any other living creature.

Relationships are the core message of ecology.

Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate, Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours Weeping upon his bed has sate, He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.

The path to decision may be hard because it leads into the territory of both finiteness and groundlessness—domains soaked in anxiety.

I'm not a terribly social person, and so I have to really like people to work with them.

A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.