What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

Fine art is the subtlest, the most seductive, the most effective instrument of moral propaganda in the world, excepting only the example of personal conduct; and I waive even this exception in favor of the art of the stage, because it works by exhibiting examples of personal conduct made intelligible and moving to crowds of unobservant unreflecting people to whom real life means nothing.

For the pre-Darwinian age had come to be regarded as a Dark Age in which men still believed that the book of Genesis was a standard scientific treatise, and that the only additions to it were Galileo'a demonstration of Leonardo da Vinci's simple remark that the earth is a moon of the sun, Sir Humphrey Davy's invention of the safety lamp, the discovery of electricity, the application of steam to industrial purposes, and the penny post.

If the English can survive their food, they can survive anything.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

The person who is ignorant enough to believe that his nourishment depends on meat is in a horrible dilemma.