In action, in desire, we must submit perpetually to the tyranny of outside forces; but in thought, in aspiration, we are free, free from our fellowmen, free from the petty planet on which our bodies impotently crawl, free even, while we live, from the tyranny of death.

Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.

If one lived for ever the joys of life would inevitably in the end lose their savour. As it is, they remain perennially fresh.

[There are m]oral precepts that we consider really important, such as 'don't pick your nose' or 'don't eat peas with a knife'. There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but . . . early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.

Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself.

Real life is, to most men, a long second best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.

St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.