The bird business is very memorable, but the work is somewhat spoiled by the very precise but implausible image of a tiny spider (and even the spider webs) casting distinct shadows from a street light, "Gigantically projected against the street".

From The Scholar's Library, a worthy collection of "required reading for the human race."

The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be trusted to man.

Davy Crockett, Not Yours to Give

Why the United States of America needs to vindicate itself in the eyes of the despotic and failing governments that make up much of the rest of the world is a mystery.

Thomas Sowell, Abstract People

When the baby boomers retire, that will be the moment of truth—or of more artful lies. Just like Enron.

Thomas Sowell, Government-Sanctioned Pyramid Schemes

That government is best which governs not at all.

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

there’s a very fashionable idea right now that each people, each culture, has its own integrity, has its own validity, which must be respected and must have its day in the sun. I don’t think anybody will bother to argue with that. But what I think you’re going to find fairly soon, as you head out into the world, are two things: first, that it’s irrelevant...

Tom Wolfe, Commencement Address at Boston University

Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America’s campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who’re supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?

Charlton Heston, Winning The Cultural War

"The Short Fiction Reading Room" section looks very promising, full of all-time classic short stores.