We have not made cricket and football [soccer] professional because of any astonishing avarice or new vulgarity. We have made them professional because we would have them perfect. We have dedicated men to them as to some god of inhuman excellence. We care more for football than for the fun of playing football.

The average man votes below himself; he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one. A man ought to vote with the whole of himself, as he worships or gets married. A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach, his eye for faces and his ear for music; also (when sufficiently provoked) with his hands and feet. If he has ever seen a fine sunset, the crimson color of it should creep into his vote. The question is not so much whether only a minority of the electorate votes. The point is that only a minority of the voter votes.

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.

A madman is not someone who has lost his reason but someone who has lost everything but his reason

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.

Against a dark sky, all flowers look like fireworks.

To be simple is the best thing in the world; to be modest is the next best thing. I am not sure about being quiet.