Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion.

It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. It is the undeserving who require it, and the ideal either does not exist at all, or exists wholly for them.

There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical...It is things going right," he cried, "that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry...the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

A third-class carriage is a community, while a first-class carriage is a place of wild hermits.

There is no bigot like the atheist.

I need not pause to explain that crime is not a disease. It is criminology that is a disease.