The martyr endured tortures to affirm his belief in truth but he never asserted his disbelief in torture.

Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself.

The test of happiness is gratitude.

When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's; but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.

But pure wit is akin to Puritanism; to the perfect and painful consciousness of the final fact in the universe. Very briefly, the man who sees the consistency in things is a wit - and a Calvinist. The man who sees the inconsistency in things is a humorist - and a Catholic.

No man's really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be.