I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin-a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or not man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing.

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

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.

Romance is the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure.

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

The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister.