George F. Will

The most capricious modern entitlement is not just Social Security but to self-esteem.

He was one of the fortunate few for whom there simply was no discernible line between work and play, between creation and recreation.

When a workman is unceasingly and exclusively engaged in the fabrication of one thing, he ultimately does his work with singular dexterity; but, at the same time, he loses the general faculty of applying his mind to the direction of the work. His every day becomes more of adroit and less industrious; so that it may be said of him, that, in proportion as the workman improves, the man is degraded. Alexis de Tocqueville

In this age of 'whatever,' Americans are becoming slaves to the new tyranny of nonchalance. " James Morris

In times of change and danger, when there is a quicksand of fear under one's reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present. John Dos Passos

Time was when much of lawyering consisted (according to turn-of-the-century lawyer and statesman Elihu Root) in "telling would-be clients that they are damned fool's, and should stop.

There may be arrogance _ and the laziness of someone who is indefatigable when doing what he enjoys, but only when doing that.

Talk about presidents "taking" the country hither and yon is part of the foam of presidential elections.

People who have nothing much in mind for next week speak instead about the next century or millennium.

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

Sex education in the modern manner has been well-described as plumbing for hedonists.

Football combines the two worst features of American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

In this snug, over-safe corner of the world_ we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous, untamed and streaming world.

National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds.

Coarseness occurs in a land where platitude inflames this sense of entitlement to more of almost everything, but less of manners and taste, with their irritating intimations of authority and hierarchy.

Behavior was better when cinemas were opulent.

Television news is akin to audible wallpaper.

Matthew Arnold was a fastidious social critic and hence an accomplished complainer. When he died, an acquaintance said: "Poor Matt, he's going to Heaven, no doubt _ but he won't like God.