The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.

Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.

The real pleasure-seeking is the combination of luxury and austerity in such a way that the luxury can really be felt.

It is the beginning of all true criticism of our time to realize that it has really nothing to say, at the very moment when it has invented so tremendous a trumpet for saying it.

There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth

...a figure of speech can often get into a crack too small for a definition.

Thoughts on the Merits of Work The worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work.