I would rather a boy learnt in the roughest school the courage to hit a politician, or gained in the hardest school the learning to refute him - rather than that he should gain in the most enlightened school the cunning to copy him.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

Very few people in the world would care to listen to the real defense of their own characters. The real defense, the defense which belongs to the Day of Judgment, would make such damaging admissions, would clear away so many artificial virtues, would tell such tragedies of weakness and failure, that a man would sooner be misunderstood and censured by the world than exposed to that awful and merciless eulogy.

Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.

In the main, and from the beginning of time, mysticism has kept men sane. The thing that has driven them mad was logic.

It is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment.