A radical generally meant a man who thought he could somehow pull up the root without affecting the flower. A conservative generally meant a man who wanted to conserve everything except his own reason for conserving anything.

The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.

I don't deny," he said, "that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say that at certain strange epochs it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet.

It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are done very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on.

You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it.