All the great enterprises of the world are run by a few smart men: their aides and associates run down by rapid stages to the level of sheer morons. Everyone knows that this is true of government, but we often forget that it is equally true of private undertakings. In the average great bank, or railroad, or other corporation the burden of management lies upon a small group. The rest are ciphers.

I know of no existing nation that deserves to live, and I know of very few individuals.

After all, the world is not our handiwork, and we are not responsible for what goes on in it, save within very narrow limits.

Save among politicians it is no longer necessary for any educated American to profess belief in Thirteenth Century ideas

Poetry is a comforting piece of fiction set to more or less lascivious music.

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together.

Of all the human qualities, the one I admire the most is competence. A tailor who is really able to cut and fit a coat seems to me an admirable man, and by the same token a university professor who knows little or nothing of the thing he presumes to teach seems to me to be a fraud and a rascal.