Social questions are too sectional, too topical, too temporal to move a man to the mighty effort which is needed to produce greatpoetry. Prison reform may nerve Charles Reade to produce an effective and businesslike prose melodrama; but it could never produce Hamlet, Faust, or Peer Gynt.

I myself have been particularly careful never to say a civil word to the United States. I have scoffed at their inhabitants as a nation of villagers. I have defined the 100 % American as 99 % an idiot. And they adore me.

Worst of all, there is no sign of any relaxation of antisemitism. Logically it has nothing to do with Fascism. But the human raceis imitative rather than logical; and as Fascism spreads antisemitism spreads.

When Satan makes impure verses, Allah sends a divine tune to cleanse them.

Property, said Proudhon, is theft. This is the only perfect truism that has been uttered on the subject.

No man manages his affairs as well as a tree does

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.