The first effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally, but to open their minds to every sort of antique nonsense

It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.

The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernel of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education.

It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.

Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.

Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].