Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings; but they dream of being shepherds.

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

For Tommy, on that hot and empty afternoon, was in a state of mind in which grown-up people go away and write books about their whole world, and stories about what it is like to be married, and plays about the important problems of modern times. Tommy, being only ten years old, was not able to do harm on this large and handsome scale.

It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense.

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

You don't want to be so open minded that your brains fall out!