Don’t talk about “progress” in terms of longevity, safety, or comfort before comparing zoo animals to those in the wilderness.

An erudite is someone who displays less than he knows; a journalist or consultant, the opposite.

Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the nonsucker, not exactly the same thing.*1

Today, we mostly face the choice between those who write clearly about a subject they don’t understand and those who write poorly about a subject they don’t understand. –

You are alive in inverse proportion to the density of clichés in your writing.

You need to keep reminding yourself of the obvious: charm lies in the unsaid, the unwritten, and the undisplayed. It takes mastery to control silence.

Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing. –

sprezzatura.

The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.