“There would be no history as we know it, no religion, no metaphysics or aesthetics as we have lived them, without an initial act of trust, of confiding, more fundamental, more axiomatic by far than any “social contract” or covenant with the postulate of the divine. This instauration of trust, this entrance of man into the city of man, is that between word and world.”

“The problem is that if we trust in man we are always let down. No, we shouldn't trust in man-- not ultimately. If we don't trust in man or God, we are in an awful lonely mess, too. You see, if we don't trust anyone, we live in fear, but if we trust in God, then we don't have to fear man anymore.”

“Don't trust children with edge tools. Don't trust man, great God, with more power than he has until he has learned to use that little better. What a hell we should make of the world if we could do what we would!”

“There's more truth in a grain of sand than you'll ever hear from man, woman, saint or sage. We classicists would sooner trust a potsherd.”

“A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.”

“Without the letters of condolence, telegrams of congratulations, and occasional postcards, the friendship of a separated friend is not a social reality. It has no existence without the rites of friendship. Social rituals create a reality which would be nothing without them. It is not too much to say that ritual is more to society than words are to thought. For it is very possible to know something and then find words for it. But it is impossible to have social relations without symbolic acts.”