To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.

Let her go to Italy!" he cried. "Let her meddle with what she doesn't understand!

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. Both assumptions are false: both of them must be accepted as true if we are to go on eating and working and loving, and are to keep open a few breathing holes for the human spirit.

In time, Mr Hall, one gets to recognize that sneer, that hardness, for fornication extends far beyond the actual deed. Were it a deed only, I for one would not hold it anathema. But when the nations went a whoring they invariably ended by denying God, I think, and until all sexual irregularities and not some of them are penal the Church will never reconquer England.

Freedom does not guarantee masterpieces.

I'd far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.

No one is more triumphant than the man who chooses a worthy subject and masters all its facts.