A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

For Scotland has a double dose of the poison called heredity; the sense of blood in the aristocrat, the sense of doom in the Calvinist.

A good civilisation spreads over us freely like a tree, varying and yielding because it is alive. A bad civilisation stands up and sticks out above us like an umbrella-artificial, mathematical in shape; not merely universal, but uniform.

The perils, rewards, punishments, and fulfillments of an adventure must be real, or the adventure is only a shifting and heartless nightmare. If I bet I must be made to pay, or there is no poetry in betting. If I challenge I must be made to fight, or there is no poetry in challenging. If I vow to be faithful I must be cursed when I am unfaithful, or there is no fun vowing.

...It's natural to believe in the supernatural. It never feels natural to accept only natural things.

If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.