And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.

There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher: they exist only in romantic legend.

Chopin--Two embalmers at work upon a minor poetthe scent of tuberosesAutumn rain.

Absence is the dark-room in which lovers develop negatives.

The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks. The minute it begins to out-whoop them it forfeits its character and becomes ridiculous.

Women hate revolutions and revolutionists. They like men who are docile, and well-regarded at the bank, and never late at meals.