It certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.

If we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.

But the most obvious fact about praise — whether of God or anything — strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.

For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.

Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.

The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can't supply is proof that Heaven must be our home.

It is by human avarice or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and overwork.