One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.

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.

Change is not progress.

The most satisfying and ecstatic faith is almost purely agnostic. It trusts absolutely without professing to know at all.

Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.

I never listen to debates. They are dreadful things indeed. The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and don't want to hear both sides. On all known subjects, ranging from aviation to xylophone-playing, I have fixed and invariable ideas. They have not changed since I was four or five.