It is better to fall among crows than flatterers; for those devour only the dead -- these the living.

It is better to fall among crows than flatterers; for those devour only the dead -- these the living.

Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.

Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am read more

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

I am bourgeois to the core and parochial beyond belief, and yet I am drawn to art and scholarship as read more

I am bourgeois to the core and parochial beyond belief, and yet I am drawn to art and scholarship as my anti-type, my shadow, the voice of distinction I never possessed. I don't think of myself as a teacher so much as an impersonator of profundities, inhabiting the wisdom of texts with the naked confidence that the value of the genius I espouse transcends the particular fraud that I am the one espousing it. And it doesn't even matter to me that no one seems to be listening; those who listen that I don't know about are enough to keep me going--soaring on the wings of borrowed metaphors.

I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.

I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

Every man dies - Not every man really lives.

Every man dies - Not every man really lives.

Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.

Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.