"We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story."
"Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts."
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Source: Mary McCarthy (1956). “Venice observed”
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"The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around."
"Modern neurosis began with the discoveries of Copernicus. Science made men feel small by showing him that the earth was not the center of the universe."
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"Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon."