We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.

Right is Right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it.

Nothing is so remote from us as the thing which is not old enough to be history and not new enough to be news.

Leaving the complications of the human breakfast-table out of account, in an elemental sense, the egg only exists to produce the chicken. But the chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist. Being a conscious life, he is, or may be, valuable in himself.

The Universe is the most extraordinary masterpiece ever constructed by nobody.

All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.

A crown of roses is also a crown of thorns.