Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

It has been often said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.

Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence.

There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.

I have myself a poetical enthusiasm for pigs, and the paradise of my fancy is one where pigs have wings. But it is only men, especially wise men, who discuss whether pigs can fly; we have no particular proof that pigs ever discuss it.