No man must be superior to the things that are common to men.... Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick.

Every man is important if he loses his life;and every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run after it.

I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

Whether a man chooses to tell the truth in long sentences or short jokes is a problem analogous to whether he chooses to tell the truth in French or in German.

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

A fad or heresy is the exaltation of something which even if true, is secondary or temporary in its nature against those things which are essential and eternal, those things which always prove themselves true in the long run. In short, it is the setting up of the mood against the mind.

Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it.