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

Such professions as the soldier and the lawyer ... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. ... If you have lost a battle you cannot believe you have won it; if your client is hanged you cannot pretend that you have gotten him off.

Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority.

Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.

Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

A change of opinions is almost unknown in an elderly military man.

It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.