there is practically no difference at all between a family and a nation, except the difference in size. A family is a nation seen through the wrong end of a telescope; a nation is a family seen through the right end of a telescope, and I don't believe it is possible to achieve a happy and successful family life, or a happy and successful national life, unless we bear this simple fact in mind and behave accordingly.

In childhood the daylight always fails too soon - except when there are going to be fireworks.

Words were the only net to catch a mood, the only sure weapon against oblivion.

Constructive destruction is one of the most delightful employments in the world, and in civilized life the opportunities for it are only too rare.

She saw every personal religion as a pair of intersecting circles. . . . Probably perfection is reached when the area of the two outer crescents, added together, is exactly equal to that of the leaf-shaped piece in the middle. On paper there must be some neat mathematical formula for arriving at this; in life, none.

to achieve unity without uniformity is the whole essence of the democratic way of life.

Giving a party is like having a baby: its conception is more fun than its completion; and once you have begun it, it is almost impossible to stop.