The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.
Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.
A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.
When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?
Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.
Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.
A yawn is a silent shout.
Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.
The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.
Coincidences are spiritual puns.
Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.
We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.
Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.
The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.
The only defensible war is a war of defense.
A radical generally meant a man who thought he could somehow pull up the root without affecting the flower. A conservative generally meant a man who wanted to conserve everything except his own reason for conserving anything.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
