“If spectacle is lacking in everyday life, it may be because we have forgotten where and how to look.”

“The spectacle takes us away from our routines. For at least a time, we feel part of something big, colorful, exciting. It is perhaps understandable that civilians are often more enthusiastic during...”

“For Achilles, the death of Patroclus pushed him into a fury, but it was not only grief that drove him. It was also a sense of shame and guilt because he had not been there to protect his friend. So...”

“For many people, that war [WWII] is called the good war because it was fought against a regime guilty of unspeakable atrocities. But the Allies did not enter the war to save Jews from extermination...”

“The Great Stone at the center of the Somme memorial has this inscription: Their name liveth for evermore. The memorial contains 73,077 names, the names of young men who were robbed of life. Note th...”

“[W]e would do better to treat terrorists as common criminals, people who have broken the laws recognized by all civil societies. To treat them as soldiers is to increase their power, respectability...”

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of wi...”

“My dear,Find what you love and let it kill you.Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.Let it kill you and let it devour your remains....”

“If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?”