The traveller's-eye view of men and women is not satisfying. A man might spend his life in trains and restaurants and know nothing of humanity at the end. To know, one must be an actor as well as a spectator.

It is possible to argue that the really influential book is not that which converts ten millions of casual readers, but rather that which converts the very few who, at any given moment, succeed in seizing power. Marx and Sorel have been influential in the modern world, not so much because they were best-sellers (Sorel in particular was not at all a widely read author), but because among their few readers were two men, called respectively Lenin and Mussolini.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

These are the sort of things people ought to look at. Things without pretensions, satisfied to be merely themselves.

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

Addiction is an increasing desire for an act that gives less and less satisfaction

Applied Science is a conjuror, whose bottomless hat yields impartially the softest of Angora rabbits and the most petrifying of Medusas.