Paul Goodman

There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less than that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.

The important thing about travel in foreign lands is that it breaks the speech habits and makes you blab less, and breaks the habitual space-feeling because of different village plans and different landscapes. It is less important that there are different mores, for you counteract these with your own reaction-formations.

It rarely adds anything to say, 'In my opinion', not even modesty. Naturally a sentence is only your opinion; and you are not the Pope.

For mankind, speech with a capital S is especially meaningful and committing, more than the content communicated. The outcry of the newborn and the sound of the bells are fraught with mystery more than the baby's woeful face or the venerable tower.

When a village ceases to be a community, it becomes oppressive in its narrow conformity. So one becomes an individual and migrates to the city. There, finding others like-minded, one re-establishes a village community. Nowadays only New Yorkers are yokels.

Comedy deflates the sense precisely so that the underlying lubricity and malice may bubble to the surface.

Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.

Few great men could pass personal.