Civilizations die from philosophical calm, irony, and a sense of fair play quite as surely as they die of debauchery.

Few people have ever seriously wished to be exclusively rational. The good life which most desire is a life warmed by passions and touched with that ceremonial grace which is impossible without some affectionate loyalty to traditional form and ceremonies.

Whenever man forgets that man is an animal, the result is always to make him less humane.

We have not merely escaped from something but into something... We have joined the greatest of all communities, which is not that of man alone but of everything which shares with us the great adventure of being alive.

It is sometimes easier to head an institute for the study of child guidance than it is to turn one brat into a decent human being.

True tragedy may be defined as a dramatic work in which the outward failure of the principal personage is compensated for by the dignity and greatness of his character.

The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at, but the moment when we are capable of seeing.