If we could destroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other apocalypse.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke - that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.

When people impute special vices to the Christian Church, they seem entirely to forget that the world (which is the only other thing there is) has these vices much more. The Church has been cruel; but the world has been much more cruel. The Church has plotted; but the world has plotted much more. The Church has been superstitious; but it has never been so superstitious as the world is when left to itself.

Altruists, with thin, weak voices, denounce Christ as an egoist. Egoists (with even thinner and weaker voices) denounce Him as an altruist.

The modern world is a crowd of very rapid racing cars all brought to a standstill and stuck in a block of traffic.

One can no more have a private religion than one can have a private sun or a private moon.