The radical defect in Christianity is that it tried to win the world by a bribe, and it has become a nullity.

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

There is no applause that so flatters a man as that which he wrings from unwilling throats.

The loss of our illusions is the only loss from which we never recover.

Humiliation is a guest that only comes to those who have made ready his resting-place, and will give him a fair welcome. ... no one can disgrace you save yourself.

If all feeling for grace and beauty were not extinguished in the mass of mankind at the actual moment, such a method of locomotion as cycling could never have found acceptance; no man or woman with the slightest aesthetic sense could assume the ludicrous position necessary for it.

For Pastrasche was their alpha and omega; their treasury and granary; their store of gold and wand of wealth; their bread-winner and minister; their only friend and comforter. ... Pastrasche was their dog.