Quote of the day

From Adam Gopnik's splendid essay on magic and magicians in this week's New Yorker:

All grownup craft depends on sustaining a frozen moment from childhood: scientists, it's said, are forever four years old, wide-eyed and self-centered; writers are forever eight, over-aware and indignant. The magician is a permanent pre-adolescent."

A nice way of thinking of things, I think. If I had to, I'd say that philosophers are forever about eighteen months old, forever delightfully puzzled and struck by the ability to recognize themselves.

And they're always putting things in their mouths.