Therefore when I considered this carefully the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.

Events that are predestined require but little management. They manage themselves. They slip into place while we sleep and suddenly we are aware that the thing we fear to attempt is already accomplished.

Comedy is defiance. It's a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it's the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

In approaching our subject it will be best without attempting to shorten the path by referring to famous theories of the drama to start directly from the facts and to collect from them gradually an idea of Shakespearean Tragedy.

When you see a fantastic colour or cut in a magazine perched up on some famous so-and-so's head it's tempting to ask your stylist for the same but do not be fooled. The hair in those fancy photos can be very high maintenance.

It is no longer an unwritten law of American capitalism that industry will attempt to maintain wages at a level that allows a single wage to support a family.

The attempt to redefine the family as a purely voluntary arrangement grows out of the modern delusion that people can keep all their options open all the time.

That bedrock faith that I could write was what blinded me to attempts to discourage me.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature the texts our first attempt at cosmology making sense of where we are in the universe our first attempt at health care believing in faith healing our first attempt at philosophy.