Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.

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.

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.

Americans are a very backward people, with all the real virtues of a backward people; the patriarchal simplicity and human dignity of a democracy, and a respect for labor uncorrupted by cynicism.

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.