Words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity.

There is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.

The only thing that it is advisable to know in any language is the numerals; and even there, you can do a lot with the fingers.

We possess nothing certainly except the past

If every museum in the New World were emptied, if every famous building in the Old World were destroyed and only Venice saved, there would be enough there to fill a full lifetime with delight. Venice, with all its complexity and variety, is in itself the greatest surviving work of art in the world.

The great charm in argument is really finding one's own opinions, not other people's.

The Welsh are the only nation in the world that has produced no graphic or plastic art, no architecture, no drama. They just sing. Sing and blow down wind instruments of plated silver.