[A pacifist is] the last and least excusable on the list of the enemies of society.

It is quite an old-fashioned fallacy to suppose that our objection to scepticism is that it removes the discipline from life. Our objection to scepticism is that it removes the motive power. Materialism is not a thing which destroys mere restraint. Materialism itself is the great restraint.

I don't deny," he said, "that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say that at certain strange epochs it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

The modern mind will accept nothing on authority, but will accept anything on no authority. Say that the Bible or the Pope says so and it will be dismissed without further examination. But preface your remark with "I think I heard somewhere," or, try but fail to remember the name of some professor who might have said "such-and-such," and it will be immediately accepted as an unshakable fact.

He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad, being methodical.

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.