The smile of a great man

"He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in your life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."


from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, page 49.

keeping secrets

Who could deny that privacy is a jewel? It has always been the mark of privilege, the distinguishing feature of a truely urbane culture.

Phyliss McGinley (1905-1978), US poet


found in Veil: Modesty, privacy and resistance by Fadwa El Guindi (1999, Oxford:Berg)