The acting that one sees upon the stage does not show how human beings comport themselves in crises, but how actors think they ought to. It is thus, like poetry and religion, a device for gladdening the heart with what is palpably not true.

The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.

There is no record in the history of a nation that ever gained anything valuable by being unable to defend itself.

It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for men subscribing to every sort of idea that is currently prevalent

Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.

The State is not force alone. It depends upon the credulity of man quite as much as upon his docility. Its aim is not merely to make him obey, but also to make him want to obey.

I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.