“ Conservatives and those on the right are usually willing to settle for thinking themselves correct on political issues; those on the left have always needed to feel not so much that they are correct b… Joseph Epstein
“ Vladimir Nabokov, contemning readers who "identified" with characters in fiction, remarked that the best readers identify with the artist. Joseph Epstein
“ The acquisition of culture requires repose, sitting quietly in a room with a book, or alone with one's thoughts even any crowded concert or art museum. Joseph Epstein
“ [Snobbishness] is the desire for what divides men and the inability to value what unites them. Joseph Epstein
“ The English philosopher Michael Oakeshott notes that one of the signs of being cold today is that one knows what one doesn't have to know. Joseph Epstein
“ That envy and a sense of injustice are not always that easily distinguished, let alone extricated, one from the other. Joseph Epstein
“ For reasons no one has yet explained, the Internet is at once riveting and a great killer of concentration. Joseph Epstein
“ I believe it was Gayelord Hauser, the nutritionist, who said, 'You are what you eat,' but if you happen to be an intellectual, you are what you quote. Joseph Epstein
“ Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not… Joseph Epstein
“ The reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely… Joseph Epstein
“ And it is a good thing that many ideas have a relatively short shelf-life. Some because they are bad, even pernicious ideas: the Master Race, the class struggle, the Oedipus complex, and Socialism are… Joseph Epstein
