Language is one of the thin walls humanity has built up over centuries against its own bestial and destructive impulses.

War, for any cause, is inexcusable. There is nothing which excuses us for the beastly ingenuity of our wars. Only fools, only the diseased, think that we are served by killing the strong young men with machines.

Speaking the truth, once you have started it, is too exhilarating to draw back.

jealousy, the most hideous emotion any human being ever suffers, has nothing to do with the mind. Or not at first.

Not literature alone, but society itself is wormed and rotten when language ceases to be respected not merely by advertisers and politicians, but by persons of learning and authority.

invaders always destroy libraries.

An animal is not cruel; it lives wholly in the instant leap on its prey, in the present taste of marrow or blood. Cruelty begins with the memory, and the pleasures of the memory are impure; they draw their strength along levels where no sun has reached.