Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

Nothing makes a man so selfish as work.

Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.

Democracy is a word all public men use and none understand.