Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.

Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life, and find solace in fantasy.

The trouble with Christianity is, not that its failed, but that it's never been tried . . . not that it can't remake the world, but that it's difficult.

I might inform those humanitarians who have a nightmare of new and needless babies (for some humanitarians have that sort of horror of humanity) that if the recent decline in the birth-rate were continued for a certain time, it might end in there being no babies at all; which would console them very much.

Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.