... 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.

Why should human females become sterile in their forties, while female crocodiles continue to lay eggs into their third century?

There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.

Back to culture. Yes, actually to culture. You can’t consume much if you sit still and read books.

Of the significant and pleasurable experiences of life only the simplest are open indiscriminately to all. The rest cannot be had except by those who have undergone a suitable training.

The snapshots had become almost as dim as memories.

A man may have strong humanitarian and democratic principles, but if he happens to have been brought up as a bath-taking, shirt-changing lover of fresh air, he will have to overcome certain physical repugnance before he can bring himself to put those principles into practice.