Whatever else we may say of our own age, for good or evil, nobody is likely to call it an Age of Reason.

The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of the mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.

Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.

America has a genius for the encouragement of fame.

To downgrade the human mind is bad theology.

There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting.

I never said a word against eminent men of science. What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself to be scientific when it is really nothing but a sort of new religion and an uncommonly nasty one. When people talked about the fall of man, they knew they were talking about a mystery, a thing they didn't understand. Now they talk about the survival of the fittest: they think they do understand it, whereas they have not merely no notion, they have an elaborately false notion of what the words mean.