1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

Human beings will be happier — not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie — but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia. Interview 1973

It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry— or laugh.