The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.

The same battle in the clouds will be known to the deaf only as lightning and to the blind only as thunder.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

In this world we must either institute conventional forms of expression or else pretend that we have nothing to express; the choice lies between a mask and a figleaf.

The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour.

The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.

Men almost universally have acknowledged providence, but that fact has had no force to destroy natural aversions and fears in the presence of events.