The reaction to any word may be, in an individual, either a mob-reaction or an individual reaction. It is up to the individual to ask himself: Is my reaction individual, or am I merely reacting from my mob-self? When it comes to the so-called obscene words, I should say that hardly one person in a million escapes mob-reaction.

Sing then the core of dark and absolute oblivion where the soul at last is lost in utter peace.

What is pornography to one man is the laughter of genius to another.

You can't insure against the future, except by really believing in the best bit of you, and in the power beyond it.

Men live in glad obedience to the masters they believe in, or they live in a frictional opposition to the master they wish to undermine.

Morality in the novel is the trembling instability of the balance. When the novelist puts his thumb in the scale, to pull down the balance to his own predilection, that is immorality.

In the end, for congenial sympathy, for poetry, for work, for original feeling and expression, for perfect companionship with one's friends--give me the country.