GAZE

As you get older, you really start to lose patience with Nietzsche's "Look at me! I'm SO different from the classic philosophers! I INVERT their teachings! Aren't I bold and cool and daring!?!?" No, Friedrich. I'm so very over that spell of yours. I was over it in my 30s. The only question that matters is Socrates' question: is it true? Nietzsche is like one of those modern artists who thinks "being good" requires "being original," and then won't make the best art he could, because it is "too similar" to some other artist's work. Do you think Aquinas cared that he frequently "sounded just like" Aristotle? No, and you shouldn't either. You should be much more worried about the question "Why don't I sound like Aristotle here? Where did I go wrong?"

Somebody already said it, but the Dutch aren’t intellectuals and philosophers, they’re engineers and builders. The Netherlands is ASML, dams, trade, and exploration - not particularly amazing writing or intellectual philosophy.

Got a girls number on the C train last week. She's way out of my league, a smokeshow. First date tonight. Time to lock in like I'm the Knicks in game six.

Study of Armor by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853-198)