The Jews fastened their religion upon the Western world, not because it was more reasonable than the religions of their contemporaries - as a matter of fact, it was vastly less reasonable than many of them - but because it was far more poetical.

Every autobiography ... becomes an absorbing work of fiction, with something of the charm of a cryptogram.

After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

War is the only sport which is genuinely amusing. And it is the only sport which has any intelligible use.

The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

New York is the place where all the aspirations of the western world meet to form one vast master aspiration, as powerful as the suction of a steam dredge. It is the icing on the pie called Christian civilization.

The movies today are too rich to have any room for genuine artists. They produce a few passable craftsmen, but no artists. Can you imagine a Beethoven making $100, 000 a year?