As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. – Daniel J. Boorstin
To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life. – Lord Chesterfield
As a freelance writer, Id be asked to become an expert for various magazines on any subject, whether food or wine or history or the life span of veterinarians. I was completely unschooled in any of these things. – John Hodgman
