This fleshly body, in which we live and move and have our being, has, through sex and sport, become a cult to the modern world. We fall in our millions, prostrate votaries at its shrine, forgetful that its quick growth is followed by quick decay, that our idol is doomed to crumble. Too many moments of highest enthusiasm on the part of youth are often reserved for the new religion--sport. A whole theology has been built up around the strokes of a bat and the throws of a ball; hard hitters are now canonized as saints. He who throws his ball far enough may yet send himself, with it, to the new heavenly Jerusalem! And as for sex, the passions and emotions of the young are deliberately stimulated by the arts of literature, journalism, cinema, and advertising just at the age when they ought to be disciplined.
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 4 : In Thoughts, Feelings, Violent Passions > # 16
