Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

Puritanism was an honourable mood; it was a noble fad. In other words, it was a highly creditable mistake.

But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.

There are two kinds of peacemakers in the modern world; and they are both, though in various ways, a nuisance. The first peacemaker is the man who goes about saying that he agrees with everybody. He confuses everybody. The second peacemaker is the man who goes about saying that everybody agrees with him. He enrages everybody. Between the two of them they produce a hundred times more disputes and distractions than we poor pugnacious people would ever have thought of in our lives.

If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments

Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these?