It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure.' 'Why not?' 'It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide.

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

If you have no money, men won't care for you, women won't love you; won't, that is, care for you or love you the last little bit that matters.

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.

The existence of good bad literature—the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously—is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.

Even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold.

And the bigger the fall, the bigger the joke. It would be better fun to throw a custard pie at a bishop than at a curate.