There is held to be no surer test of civilization than the increase per head of the consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Yet alcohol and tobacco are recognizable poisons, so that their consumption has only to be carried far enough to destroy civilization altogether.

Civilized men arrived in the Pacific, armed with alcohol, syphilis, trousers, and the Bible.

Heroes exterminate each other for the benefit of people who are not heroes.

All progress in literary style lies in the heroic resolve to cast aside accretions and exuberances, all the conventions of a past age that were once beautiful because alive and are now false because dead.

The great writer finds style as the mystic finds God, in his own soul.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Still, whether we like it or not, the task of speeding up the decrease of the human population becomes increasingly urgent.