Surprise is the secret of joy.

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.

The men of the East may spell the stars, And times and triumphs mark, But the men signed of the cross of Christ Go gaily in the dark.

If the world becomes pagan and perishes, the last man left alive would do well to quote the Iliad and die.

History is not a toboggan slide, but a road to be reconsidered and even retraced

There cannot be a nation of millionaires, and there never has been a nation of Utopian comrades; but there have been any number of nations of tolerably contented peasants.

Forms of expression always appear turgid to those who do not share the emotions they represent.