A critic is a man who expects miracles.

A civil ruler dabbling in religion is as reprehensible as a clergyman dabbling in politics. Both render themselves odious as well as ridiculous.

To-day the whole Christian world prostrates itself in adoration around the crib of Bethlehem and rehearses in accents of love a history which precedes all time and will endure throughout eternity. As if by an instinct of our higher, spiritual nature, there well up from the depths of our hearts, emotions which challenge the power of human expression. We seem to be lifted out of the sphere of natural endeavor to put on a new life and to stretch forward in desire to a blessedness which, though not palpable, is eminently real.

For to keep at the top is harder almost than to get there

Berlioz says nothing in his music, but he says it magnificently.

I am no longer a curmudgeon. I am a curmudgeon emeritus.

Reform must come from within, not from without. You cannot legislate for virtue.