It is one of the deep jokes of existence that very wise people and very ignorant people frequently say the same thing; perhaps it is the basis of democracy. I think I have suggested about two hundred different bases of democracy in this column; and there are more coming. But in any case it is a curious truth that the first word said by the most superficial person is often the same as the last word said by the most profound. Thus, for instance, any hairdresser making futile conversation may say 'It is a strange world.' Really for one awful instant to feel it is a strange world is the last and highest peak of all poetry and philosophy; many prophets and righteous men have desired to see this thing, and have not seen it. The man who meets you in the morning and takes the wild responsibility of applying to the day the adjective 'good' is almost sharing in that strange and awful calm which applied it to all things on the first Sabbath. There is something singularly terrible about this vision of men walking about the world saying mighty things that they do not understand, crying out dreadful messages to which their own ears are deaf. Their words are the words of sages, while their faces are the faces of children. The streets are full of these dead men, talking with living tongues.

-Februar 23, 1907, Daily News