The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

Somehow one can never manage to be an atheist.

It is hard to make government representative when it is also remote.

For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers.

It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government.

A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.