The coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church

For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value of any of them is that they bear the image of the king.

The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

The perils, rewards, punishments, and fulfillments of an adventure must be real, or the adventure is only a shifting and heartless nightmare. If I bet I must be made to pay, or there is no poetry in betting. If I challenge I must be made to fight, or there is no poetry in challenging. If I vow to be faithful I must be cursed when I am unfaithful, or there is no fun vowing.

All that we call spirit and art and ecstacy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forgot.

Truth is sacred; and if you tell the truth too often nobody will believe it.

The old religionist cried out for his god. The new religionist cries out for some god to be his.