The vast majority of human beings are not interested in reason or satisfied with what it teaches.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation.

We live together, we act on, and react to one another; but always, and in all circumstances, we are by ourselves.

The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend

The people who kill and torture and tell lies in the name of their sacred causes, these are never the publicans and the sinners. No, they're the virtuous, respectable men, who have the finest feelings, the best brains, the noblest ideals.