Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

The traveller must be somebody and come from somewhere, so that his definite character and moral traditions may supply an organ and a point of comparison for his observations.

If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them.

The highest form of vanity is love of fame.

The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.

Emotion is primarily about nothing and much of it remains about nothing to the end.

An ideal cannot wait for its realization to prove its validity.