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- Self-help philosophy is a weak misreading of paganism. It exploits the very deep, historically-rooted, biologically-rooted need for ritual.
- The Gods have flown — they are invisible; but invisible, rather than non-existent. The difference between the invisible and the non-existent in immense; infinite.
- A day job is a kind of death sentence. In fact, modern life offers a series of death sentences: school, job, marriage. What modern life very rarely offers is Life —
- Most people don’t hate literature — they just have absolutely no idea what it is.
- Americanism is a virus. But when I think about it, so is Russianism, or Chinaism, or Europeanism. Power, writ large, is always a nightmere.
- Plato had it wrong — poets, not philosophers, should be kings.
- Every generation mocks the previous generation for misunderstanding, and neglecting, its geniuses, all the while, misunderstanding its own.
- A great novel — a novel on the level of Ulysses or War and Peace — could be written today and no one would notice. I really believe that. And on the other hand — it seems more and more unlikely that such a novel could be written.
- By definition, there’s no place in mass culture for elite culture.
- ‘Good’ TV is just as stupid as traditional TV — and in fact worse because it’s passed off as edifying. Netflix culture is a conjob.
- Great art is the sacrifice of the great person. We reject great art specifically because the element of self-sacrifice makes us quesy.
- Most of our lives is wasted on stupid shit. This is the point of Nietzsche’s conjecture of the eternal return.
