The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.

A "classic" is a book that everybody praises but nobody has read

If there is a God, he is a malign thug.

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

I make it a rule never to smoke while I'm sleeping.

I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough.

Age enlarges and enriches the powers of some musical instruments - notably those of the violin - but it seems to set a piano's teeth on edge.