It is always some illusion that creates disillusion, especially in the young, for whom the only alternative to perfection is cynicism.

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.

Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens - all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say science incarnate.

Great cultural changes begin in affectation and end in routine.

Americans began by loving youth, and now, out of adult self-pity, they worship it.

The world has long observed that small acts of immorality, if repeated, will destroy character. It is equally manifest, though never said, that uttering nonsense and half-truth without cease ends by destroying Intellect

If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real.