Anthologies are mischievous things. Some years ago there was a rage for chemically predigested food, which was only suppressed when doctors pointed out that since human beings had been given teeth and digestive organs they had to be used or they degenerated very rapidly. Anthologies are predigested food for the brain.

Mr. James Joyce is a great man who is entirely without taste.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

We all drew on the comfort which is given out by the major works of Mozart, which is as real and material as the warmth given up by a glass of brandy.

It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to write a historical work. He would then realize that the human race is in quite a jam about truth.

I don't believe that to understand is necessarily to pardon, but I feel that to understand makes one forget that one cannot pardon.

You must always believe that life is as extraordinary as music says it is.