Language exists to communicate whatever it can communicate. Some things it communicates so badly that we never attempt to communicate them by words if any other medium is available.

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

In those days a boy on the classical side officially did almost nothing but classics. I think this was wise; the greatest service we can to education today is to teach few subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.

It is very true. But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.

Selfishness has never been admired.

You've no idea how good an old joke sounds when you take it out again after a rest of five or six hundred years.