There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.

A thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Such professions as the soldier and the lawyer ... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. ... If you have lost a battle you cannot believe you have won it; if your client is hanged you cannot pretend that you have gotten him off.

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

Only friendliness produces friendship. And we must look far deeper into the soul of man for the thing that produces friendliness.

If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other--the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea, which is the core of ethics, is the core of the nursery-tales.