A Well Turned Phrase

(He) consistently packs hard rock’s long-standing mix of masculine bravado, deep vulnerability, and committed derangement into a scant few lines—and it’s a romp. This might be most obvious in the chorus to album standout “Psycho”: “If you ever leave, girl, I’m gonna get a face tattoo / crash my truck, end up on the six o’clock news.”

—Erin Vanderhoo

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. It cheapens and degrades the human experience, when it should inspire and elevate.

—Tom Waits

Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Legal education was regarded by many Italian humanists as a training in pettifoggery and organized greed, withering the soul. It benefited only the rich, who could afford to pay for the best legal advice.

—James Hankins

…(W)e are surrounded by the Lululemon crowd at this beautiful outdoor cafe. What Tom Wolfe called the Social X-Rays are brunching, and unlike my kids and me, they did not order extra pancakes on top of their regular orders. We seem to have to taste as much variety as possible, so every order has an extra side order. This crowd though is slightly le

Something strange happened in the French Quarter in December. The trash-strewn streets were swept spotless seemingly overnight. Graffiti old enough to graduate was power-washed out of existence. And Bourbon Street’s signature scent of vomit and regret was replaced with the smell of lemons. 

— Wall Street Journal

A fool is known by his speech, and a wise man by silence.

—Pythagoras

Stephen is out of action this week, laid low by some unknown virus. And, like a lot of people, he’s gone into a temporary hibernation — a pestilent torpor, punctuated by groans, sugary treats, and Apple TV. He’s retreated into the warm, snuggly comfort of his sick cave. A place, I imagine, not unlike a Neanderthal’s home.

—Big Think

It is useful to read certain authors before one realizes – either through one’s own or others’ critical diktats – that they should not in fact be read. Kipling floats in and out of fashion. When I encountered him I imagine he was pretty much out, but Just So Stories and the Jungle Books (titles whose destruction by Disney’s huns