Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

Security, the chief pretense of civilization, cannot exist where the worst of dangers, the danger of poverty, hangs over everyone's head.

A man's interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

Every drunken skipper trusts to Providence. But one of the ways of Providence with drunken skippers is to run them on the rocks.

In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win.

The thief who is in prison is not necessarily more dishonest than his fellows at large, but mostly one who, through ignorance or stupidity [or racism or poverty! - Draffan] steals in a way that is not customary. He snatches a loaf from the baker's counter and is promptly run into gaol. Another man snatches bread from the table of hundreds of widows and orphans and similar credulous souls who do not know the ways of company promoters; and, as likely as not, he is run into Parliament.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.