It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden.

The woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn’t obeyed.

The old idea that the joke was not good enough for the company has been superseded by the new aristocratic idea that the company was not worthy of the joke. They have introduced an almost insane individualism into that one form of intercourse which is specially and uproariously communal. They have made even levities into secrets. They have made laughter lonelier than tears.

Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful.

There is no great harm in the theorist who makes up a new theory to fit a new event. But the theorist who starts with a false theory and then sees everything as making it come true is the most dangerous enemy of human reason.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

A mystic is a man who separates heaven and earth even if he enjoys them both.