"We all invent ourselves as we go along, and a great man's myths about himself merely tend to stick better than most."

"On the subject of wild mushrooms it is easy to tell who is an expert and who is not: The expert is the one who is sti…"

"Next to the writer of real estate advertisements, the autobiographer is the most suspect of prose artists."

"Bartók's vision of a modern music "rejuvenated under the influence of a kind of peasant music that has remained untou…"

"Christina Petrowska ... has fingers that work like chrome‐plated pistons, and her highseated position, with elbows we…"

"The sad truth is that the human brain can soften as a result of incessant listening to music with an intent to commit…"

"In the final stages of ennui, we may not even be disappointed to hear jarringly wrong notes or wayward interpretation…"

"Americans have always been especially prone to regard all things as resulting from the free choice of a free will. Pr…"

"Democracy is clearly most appropriate for countries which enjoy an economic surplus and least appropriate for countri…"

"Here, for the last time together, appeared a triumvirate of old men, relics of a golden age, who still towered like g…"