All democracies are based on the proposition that power is very dangerous and that it is extremely important not to let any one person or small group have too much power for too long a time

he had been making an unsuccessful effort to write something about nothing in particular

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

It's with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

... the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.

To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme.