A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher.

A nation is not going mad when it does extravagant things, so long as it does them in an extravagant spirit. But whenever we see things done wildly, but taken tamely, then the State is growing insane.

People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.

Whatever else we may say of our own age, for good or evil, nobody is likely to call it an Age of Reason.

The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within.

This is the age in which thin and theoretic minorities can cover and conquer unconscious and untheoretic majorities.

A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying, 'Of course I do not like green cheese. I am very fond of brown sherry.