Men spoke much in my boyhood about restricted or ruined men of genius: and it was common to say that many a man was a Great Might-Have-Been. To me it's a more solid and startling fact that any man in the street is a Great Might-Not-Have-Been.

A change of opinions is almost unknown in an elderly military man.

Passion makes every detail important.

I am the fool in this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.

Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say.

No animal ever invented anything as bad as drunkenness - or so good as drink.

He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.