Joseph Bottum

(Dune's Frank) Herbert made religion the inescapable instrument of cultural change.

Anything that keeps old words in circulation is to be treasured, the French revolution be damned.

We have a name for the sum of grievances and compromises, this sheer normality of life lived among other people. We call it civilization. Culture, society, the workaday interactions of ordinary time.

Cities on the ocean have a choice whether to turn their faces or their backs to the water, lining the shore either with pretty hotels and rich homes or dim warehouses, narrow streets, and greasy piers. All prairie towns turn away from the prairie, however. The huddled houses form a storm-battened island in the midst of endless space.

A fierce hatred of embarrassment ruled a surprising amount of the life of Moses Malone, the Hall of Fame basketball center.

People who are easily embarrassed _ those who blush too often and too soon _ usually end up retreating from excellence.