A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter.

Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.

We do not admire, we hardly excuse, the fanatic who wrecks this world for love of the other. But what are we to say of the fanatic who wrecks this world out of hatred of the other? He sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who never lived at all.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.

Every work of art has one indispensable mark ... the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated.

Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity.