There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.

The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

Our wise old church...has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be given to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you.

People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.

Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure.

What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.

If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.