One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

Pageantry is a visionary art which has been used, from time immemorial, as a political instrument.

Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

Real progress is progress in charity, all other advances being secondary thereto.

For particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but fretsawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.