Do I Grow Cleverer With Age, Or

There Is Nothing An Addict Likes More, Or That Serves As Better Pretext For Continuing His Present Way Of Life, Than To Place The Weight Of Responsibility For His Situation Somewhere Other Than On His Own Decisions.

The Need Always To Lie And Always To Avoid The Truth Stripped Everyone Of What Custine Called 'the Two Greatest Gifts Of God-the Soul And The Speech Which Communicates It.' People Became Hypocritical, Cunning, Mistrustful, Cynical, Silent, Cruel, And Indifferent To The Fate Of Others As A Result Of The Destruction Of Their Own Souls.

The Bravest And Most Noble Are Not Those Who Take Up Arms, But Those Who Are Decent Despite Everything; Who Improve What It Is In Their Power To Improve, But Do Not Imagine Themselves To Be Saviours. In Their Humble Struggle Is True Heroism.

The Loss Of The Religious Understanding Of The Human Condition—that Man Is A Fallen Creature For Whom Virtue Is Necessary But Never Fully Attainable—is A Loss, Not A Gain, In True Sophistication. The Secular Substitute—the Belief In The Perfection Of Life On Earth By The Endless Extension Of A Choice Of Pleasures—is Not Merely Callow By Comparison But Much Less Realistic In Its Understanding Of Human Nature.

How Many People Does Each Of Us Know Who Claim To Seek Happiness But Freely Choose Paths Inevitably Leading To Misery?