I found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble.

If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.

The devil's aversion to holy water is a light matter compared with a despots dread of a newspaper that laughs.

It is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you've got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No- and I see now plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can't fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business.

Never argue with people who buy ink by the gallon.

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.

No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is.