I'm pretty good at inventing phrases - you know, the sort of words that suddenly make you jump, almost as though you'd sat on a pin, they seem so new and exciting even though they're about something hypnopaedically* obvious. But that doesn't seem enough. It's not enough for the phrases to be good; what you make with them ought to be good too.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner.

Nothing is more dreadful than a cold, unimpassioned indulgence. And love infallibly becomes cold and unimpassioned when it is too lightly made.

Chastity - the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.

The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is to be proved right.

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

Maybe this world is another planet's Hell.