It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch.

Like every book I never wrote, it is by far the best book I have ever written.

The Universe is the most extraordinary masterpiece ever constructed by nobody.

When it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.

Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself.

We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.

Every true artist does feel, consciously or unconsciously, that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil. In other words, the natural mystic does know that there is something there, something behind the clouds or within the trees; but he believes that the pursuit of beauty is the way to find it; that imagination is a sort of incantation that can call it up.