Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion.

Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

A man cannot deserve adventures; he cannot earn dragons and hippogriffs.

Thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste.

The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.

CIVILISATION is not to be judged by the rapidity of communication, but by the value of what is communicated.