The simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial definitions, is the basis of spirituality.

Only poor men get hanged.

My life is passed in making bad jokes and seeing them turn into true prophecies.

We have not made cricket and football [soccer] professional because of any astonishing avarice or new vulgarity. We have made them professional because we would have them perfect. We have dedicated men to them as to some god of inhuman excellence. We care more for football than for the fun of playing football.

The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.

The truth is that there are no things for which men will make such herculean efforts as the things of which they know they are unworthy.

And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.