The Catholic Church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar.

Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.

All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.

Many clever men like you have trusted to civilization. Many clever Babylonians, many clever Egyptians, many clever men at the end of Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that is flagrant with the failures of civilisation, what there is particularly immortal about yours?

Every man is important if he loses his life;and every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run after it.

The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.

I still think sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin.