Notes 20

Feelings are stronger than facts when it is a question of bringing a civilization to its close; for the particular feelings that demand renewal at any cost have behind them the tremendous force of unreasoning hate against what must seem to a passionate man an endless series of cages. "I feel something within me," said the Chieftain from the North, "that compels me to burn Rome."
-- Jacques Barzun, in Garrity and Gay, eds., The Columbia History of the World, 1972, 1155

To appear wise is already to have failed.

I know, at least, that I am not good.