Art is by nature aristocratic, and naturally selective in its effect on the audience. For even in its 'collective' manifestations, like theatre or cinema, its effect is bound up with the intimate emotions of each person who comes into contact with a ...
Porn is now so deeply embedded in our culture that it has become synonymous with sex to such a point that to criticize porn is to get slapped with the label anti-sex. … But what if you are a feminist who is pro-sex in the real sense of the word, pr...
Literature is impossible, in exactly this sense: every new generation has so much 'catching up' to do that the real choice that presents itself soon is the following one: one either spends ones entire life just reading all the classics, or one preten...
For so long, maybe all my life, I thought only a house could make you whole. I thought I was nothing without an interesting address. I thought I was only as good as my color scheme, my drawer pulls, my floors....it's the knowledge that a house can be...
The first treatise on the interior of the body, which is to say, the treatise that gave the body an interior , written by Henri De Mondeville in the fourteenth century, argues that the body is a house, the house of the soul, which like any house can ...
Why do many believers insist on repeatedly pointing to the crimes of 20th century dictators who led officially atheistic societies as some sort of evidence of their god's existence? It makes no sense. If the rivers of blood on Stalin's hands and Mao'...
We’re at this really unique time, I think, in trans representation in popular culture where homelessness, depression, mental health issues, instability-in-general are still so very real and need to be talked about, but we’re aware that they’ve ...
We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in poetry. A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or controlling orthodoxies of so much of Chr...
It’s been my experience that people always assume that generalized anxiety disorder is preferable to social anxiety disorder, because it sounds more vague and unthreatening, but those people are totally wrong. For me, having generalized anxiety dis...
There are so many things we can’t do anything about if we think about generalities. Things won’t go well because there is a huge gap between the generalities and the particulars. If we see generalities from the top of a mountain or from a plane, ...
Crossing the meadow, he came again to the mouth of the cave where he had stood so undecided only the twilight before. Knowing what he would find, he yet wanted the final confirmation. Pushing the evergreen branches aside from the smooth rock on the r...
Adolf Hitler: That was an order! Steiner's assault was an order! Who do you think you are to dare disobey an order I give? So this is what it has come to! The military has been lying to me. Everybody has been lying to me, even the SS! Our generals ar...
Translator: The general would like to know if you will drink a toast with him. Patton: Thank the general and tell him I have no desire to drink with him or any other Russian son of a bitch. Translator: [Nervous] I can't tell him that! Patton: Tell hi...
Patton: [Bradley frowns as Patton pins on his new stars] What's the matter, Brad? I've been nominated by the president. General Omar N. Bradley: I know... but it doesn't become official until it's been approved by the Senate. Patton: Well, they have ...
[Hummel visits his wife's grave before setting his plan into action] General Hummel: I miss you so much. [long pause] General Hummel: There's something I've gotta do, Barb. Something I couldn't do while you were here. I tried. You know I tried everyt...
Lt. General Horrocks: Kickoff will be at 14:35 hours tomorrow afternoon. The Irish Guards under the command of Col. Vandeleur will take the lead. Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: [sotto voce] Christ, not us again. Lt. General Horrocks: What'd you say to...
Brigadier General Gavin: What's the best way to take a bridge? Maj. Julian Cook: Both ends at once. Brigadier General Gavin: I'm sending two companies across the river by boat. I need a man with very special qualities to lead. Maj. Julian Cook: Go on...
A history of the working class in the United States should, first of all, give a sense of what is meant by "the working class in the United States." It means most of us who live in the United States of America-which, unfortunately, has not been the f...
Government advocate: General Dyer, is it correct that you ordered your troops to fire at the thickest part of the crowd? Gen. Dyer: [righteous tone] That is so. Government advocate: One thousand five hundred and sixteen casualties with one thousand s...
Religion needs a baptism of horse sense.
Our standard rate. A doubloon a day." It was generous. More than generous--some families would put him up for a week for a single coin. "Half a doubloon a day," she said. "No, you see, the idea behind bargaining is that you ask for a larger amount.
