There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol.

Books have their destinies like men. And their fates, as made by generations of readers, are very different from the destinies foreseen for them by their authors. Gulliver's Travels, with a minimum of expurgation, has become a children's book; a new illustrated edition is produced every Christmas. That's what comes of saying profound things about humanity in terms of a fairy story.

We tend to think and feel in terms of the art we like; and if the art we like is bad then our thinking and feeling will be bad. And if the thinking and feeling of most of the individuals composing a society is bad, is not that society in danger?

Art, I suppose, is only for beginners, who have made up in their minds to be content with symbols rather than with what they signify, with the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner.

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.

Lying in bed, he would think of Heaven and London.

For what we think and feel and are is to a great extent determined by the state of our ductless glands and our viscera.