"Contradiction is a problem for knowing, a problem for doing things together, and a problem for living and feeling." 

"if philosophical pessimism is to be seen as something more than a 'mere' temperament or attitude, what might this be?"

"Before anything can be, there must be made nothing; prior to this contraction, nothing is not – where, after all, would it be?"

"Humanity is an errant species; perhaps this is why it is a planetary species, dreaming of becoming interplanetary."

"To leave the cave is to abandon something that matters deeply: politics, the material world, art and poetry and beauty."