What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.

All great books contain boring portions, and all great lives have contained uninteresting stretches.

A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.

The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.

The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.

Fervent religious believers sacrifice pleasures of the body, but instead enjoy pleasures of the mind, including the joy of knowing that those men who didn't follow their religion would be tortured for eternity.

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.