The insidiousness of science lies in its claim to be not a subject, but a method. You could ignore a subject; no subject is all-inclusive. But a method can plausibly be applied to anything within the field of consciousness.

The past is discredited because it is not modern. Not to be modern is the great sin. So, perhaps, it is. But every one has, in his day, been modern. And surely even modernity is a poor thing beside immortality. Since we must all die, is it not perhaps better to be a dead lion than a living dog?

The imagination can be happy in places where the whole man is not.

Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism.

if you are perfectly willing to shock an individual verbally, the next thing you will be doing is to shock him practically.

Civilization is merely an advance in taste: accepting, all the time, nicer things, and rejecting nasty ones.

[Science] has challenged the super-eminence of religion; it has turned all philosophy out of doors except that which clings to its skirts; it has thrown contempt on all learning that does not depend on it; and it has bribed the skeptics by giving us immense material comforts.