Revolution, n. Social climbing en masse. In a revolution the masses, frustrated that only a few of their class can rise up the social ladder at any given time, attempt to raise themselves by cutting off the bottom rungs. In the process their own position does not improve: they have simply brought those at the top lower.
She had that sort of face that one cannot ever imagine smiling, a face that quite possibly physiologically was incapable of smiling, a face that seemed to try its best and yet still fail to maintain just the look of indifference on it, a face truly and deeply odious.
Language, n. The primary means by which well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) men and women confuse, obfuscate, distort, inveigle and misdirect. Occasionally, they also use it to communicate, though this is largely incidental and generally looked down upon as something rude at best and blasphemous at worst. One generally uses a word for its emotional impact and connotations; occasionally one uses a word for its sound; in a few rare cases, a word is used for its precise meaning.
Those who call themselves pro-life are in fact anti-life, while those Greeks who invented the story of Oedipus were truly pro-life.
A man seldom sees the horror of a crime until he has been its victim.
I have now seen every episode of the X-Files ever made. This is my grand achievement for the week.
In a world where infidelity is the rule and commitment the exception, perhaps there is something beautiful in knowing that a fool and his folly are seldom parted.
Those who lack subtlety always mistake a satire for that which is being satirized: they understand only the most blatant parodies.
Relative to most men, I have visited very many different places in my life already and, generally, I have had the impression that I would be happier living in most of those places than I have been in America. I do not mean by this to say that I wish I had been born and raised in those places, though; for I think I could not have arisen under any other circumstances. Indeed, what is most precious to me in my character, my philosophy I mean, has grown in me as a pearl grows in a clam — as an attempt to rid oneself of an irritant.