There is no remorse like a remorse of chess. It is a curse upon man. There is no happiness in chess.

Men who think in lifetimes are of little use to statesmanship.

The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations. The least satisfying of desires. A nameless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.

Strength is the outcome of need.

Our challenge is not to educate the children we used to have or want to have, but to educate the children who come to the schoolhouse door.

I must confess that I lost faith in the sanity of the world

The too perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, a general dwindling in size, strength, and intelligence.