Men in England are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by brutes who refuse them bread, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern, and therefore wish to enslave.

A good joke is the closest thing we have to divine revelation.

The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription.

What we call emancipation is always and of necessity simply the free choice of the soul between one set of limitations and another.

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