Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil.

Just the other day in the Underground I enjoyed the pleasure of offering my seat to three ladies.

It is better to speak wisdom foolishly like the saints than to speak folly wisely like the deans.

It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is not what he is capable of being.

He is only a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of the Conservative.

The only people who seem to have nothing to do with the education of the children are the parents.

A madman is not someone who has lost his reason but someone who has lost everything but his reason

The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'

Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion.

I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.

A man must be orthodox upon most things, or he will never even have time to preach his own heresy.

A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life, and find solace in fantasy.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

There are a good many fools who call me a friend, and also a good many friends who call me a fool.

The professional soldier gains more and more power as the general courage of a community declines.

To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once.

Tea, although an OrientalIs a gentleman at least;Cocoa is a cad and coward,Cocoa is a vulgar beast.

For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.

A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education.

...the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

Where does a wise man kick a pebble? On the beach. Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest.

Lord! what a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!

Powerful men who have powerful passions use much of their strength in forging chains for themselves.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

I am more than a devil; I am a man. I can do the one thing which Satan himself cannot do— I can die.

Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history.

Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors.

If you'd take your head home and boil it for a turnip it might be useful. I can't say. But it might.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

A feminist is someone who loathes being a woman and who dislikes the chief feminine characteristics.

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

Most Americans ... have a sort of permanent intoxication from within, a sort of invisible champagne.

The evolutionists seem to know everything about the missing link except the fact that it is missing.

It is well sometimes to half understand a poem in the same manner that we half understand the world.

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.

There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.

...It's natural to believe in the supernatural. It never feels natural to accept only natural things.

There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.

Happiness is not only a hope, but also in some strange manner a memory ... we are all kings in exile.

Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion.

It is the first law of practical courage. To be in the weakest camp is to be in the strongest school.

A man cannot have the energy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it.

I have little doubt that when St. George had killed the dragon he was heartily afraid of the princess.

Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative.

Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority.

We are learning to do a great many clever things. The next great task will be to learn not to do them.

People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.

Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

Share This Page