“ In short, it became possible - never easy, but possible - in the poet Auden's phrase to find the mortal world enough. Stephen Greenblatt
“ A comparably capacious embrace of beauty and pleasure - an embrace that somehow extends to death as well as life, to dissolution as well as creation - characterizes Montaigne's restless reflections on… Stephen Greenblatt
“ Humans have both consoled and tormented themselves with the thought that something awaits them after they have died. Either they will gather flowers for eternity in a paradisal garden where no chill w… Stephen Greenblatt
“ Populism may look like an embrace of the have-nots, but in reality it is a form of cynical exploitation. The unscrupulous leader has no actual interest in bettering the lot of the poor. Surrounded fro… Stephen Greenblatt
“ The absurdity of these campaign promises is not an impediment to their effectiveness. On the contrary: Cade keeps producing demonstrable falsehoods about his origins and making wild claims about the g… Stephen Greenblatt
“ The dread of something after death,/The undiscovered country from whose bourn/No traveller returns. Stephen Greenblatt
“ Finally, there a motley crowd of those who carry out his orders, some reluctantly but simply eager to avoid trouble; others with gusto, hoping to seize something along the way for themselves; still ot… Stephen Greenblatt
“ Place of the philosopher the singer is called in, and in place of the orator the teacher of stagecraft, and while the libraries are shut up forever like tombs, water-organs are manufactured and lyres… Stephen Greenblatt
“ As with modern totalitarian regimes, people developed techniques for speaking in code, addressing at one or more removes what most mattered to them. But it was not only caution that motivated Shakespe… Stephen Greenblatt
“ Shakespeare grappled again and again with a deeply unsettling question: how is it possible for a whole country to fall into the hands of a tyrant? Stephen Greenblatt
“ The quintessential emblem of religion and the clearest manifestation of the perversity that lies at its core is the sacrifice of a child by a parent.Almost all religious faiths incorporate the myt… Stephen Greenblatt
“ The indefatigable scholar Didymus of Alexandria earned the nickname Bronze-Ass (literally, Brazen-Bowelled) for having what it took to write more than 3,500 books; apart from a few fragments, all have… Stephen Greenblatt
“ In ordinary times, when a public figure is caught in a lie or simply reveals blatant ignorance of the truth, his standing is diminished. But these are not ordinary times. If a dispassionate bystander… Stephen Greenblatt
“ The mob then dragged her corpse outside the city walls and burned it. Their hero Cyril was eventually made a saint. Stephen Greenblatt
“ He [Cade] promises to make England great again. How will he do that? He shows the crowd at once: he attacks education. Stephen Greenblatt
“ The highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the reduction of pain. Stephen Greenblatt
“ On the Nature of Things. Indeed, the wealthy patron with philosophical interests could have wished to meet the author in person. It would have been a small matter to send a few slaves and a litter to… Stephen Greenblatt
