'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'

This is, first and last, the real value of Christmas; in so far as the mythology remains at all it is a kind of happy mythology. Personally, of course, I believe in Santa Claus; but it is the season of forgiveness, and I will forgive others for not doing so.

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.

London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.