The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'

There is less difference than many suppose between the ideal Socialist system, in which the big businesses are run by the State, and the present Capitalist system, in which the State is run by the big businesses.

Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government.

But there is in everything a reasonable division of labour. I have written the book, and nothing on earth would induce me to read it.

We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.

Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.