The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion. They can persuade and can be persuaded by the disclosure of alternatives, the better and the worse. Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however, unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals. Thus in a live civilization there is always an element of unrest.

From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.

On the ostensible exactitude of certain branches of human knowledge, including mathematics. The exactness is a fake.

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts. It is a way of illuminating the facts.

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.

War can protect; it cannot create.

Through and through the world is infested with quantity: To talk sense is to talk quantities. It is no use saying the nation is large. . . . How large? It is no use saying the radium is scarce. . . . How scarce? You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.