Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes. . . . it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it.

In religion all words are dirty words. Anybody who gets eloquent about Buddha, or God, or Christ, ought to have his mouth washed out with carbolic soap.

It is possible to argue that the really influential book is not that which converts ten millions of casual readers, but rather that which converts the very few who, at any given moment, succeed in seizing power. Marx and Sorel have been influential in the modern world, not so much because they were best-sellers (Sorel in particular was not at all a widely read author), but because among their few readers were two men, called respectively Lenin and Mussolini.

People will insist on treating the mons Veneris as though it were Mount Everest. Too silly!

Only times and places, only names and ghosts.

We shall be permitted to live on this planet only for as long as we treat all nature with compassion and intelligence.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.