Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. The are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury.

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.

The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits

One does not arise from such a book as Sister Carrie with a smirk of satisfaction; one leaves it infinitely touched.

Los Angeles: nineteen suburbs in search of a metropolis.

It is more blessed to give than receive; for example, wedding presents.

My guess is that well over eighty per cent. of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought.