The natural tendency of every government is to grow steadily worse-that is, to grow more satisfactory to those who constitute it and less satisfactory to those who support it.

The objection to a Communist always resolves itself into the fact that he is not a gentleman.

Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice.

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.

A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.

There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.

I well recall my horror when I heard for the first time, of a journalist who had laid in a pair of what were then called bicycle pants and taken to golf; it was as if I had encountered a studhorse with his hair done up in frizzes, and pink bowknots peeking out of them. It seemed, in some vague way, ignominious, and even a bit indelicate.