For Tommy, on that hot and empty afternoon, was in a state of mind in which grown-up people go away and write books about their whole world, and stories about what it is like to be married, and plays about the important problems of modern times. Tommy, being only ten years old, was not able to do harm on this large and handsome scale.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

A modern man may disapprove of some of his sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds it difficult not to admire even where he does not approve.

Tolerance is the virtue of those who don't believe anything.

Democracy is reproached with saying that the majority is always right. But progress says that the minority is always right.

Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solemnity you wish in your neckties, but in anything important (such as sex, death, and religion), you must have mirth or you will have madness.

In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe and the Cross can all fit together.