To be born into this earth is to be born into uncongenial surroundings, hence to be born into a romance.

The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything.

Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history.

The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of the mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.

They say travel broadens the mind, but you must have the mind.

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

I still hold. . .that the suburbs ought to be either glorified by romance and religion or else destroyed by fire from heaven, or even by firebrands from the earth.