“What was invented with civilization was the ability of some to deny sensuality to others.”

“The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.”

“Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.”

“That little boys and girls should be tormented is what no one at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny.”

“The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.”

“The world was in truth made of jackstraws. The world was very combustible, the human body was partible in ways heretofore unimagined. What held the civilized world together was the thinnest tissue of nothing but human will. Civilization was not in the natural order but was some wort of willed invention held taut like a fabric or a sail against the chaos of the winds. And why we had invented it, or how we knew to invent it, was beyond him.Newmann had seen some truth that was completely out of his power to put into words. But he had come away knowing that even though the world of civilization was made of straw and lantern slides, he must live in it as if it were solid. Even when the heat of the lantern itself burnt away the illusions and a black hole appeared in the middle of the slide.”