There is one vast human experience that confronts us so formidably that we cannot pretend to overlook it. There is no solution to death. There is no means whatever whereby you or I, by taking thought, can solve this difficulty in such a manner that it no longer exists.
Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something.
There is, in fact, a paradox about working to serve the community, and it is this: that to aim directly at serving the community is to falsify the work; the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work.
Advertise, or go under.
It is impossible for human nature to believe that money is not there. It seems so much more likely that the money is there and only needs bawling for.
I have never yet heard any middle-aged man or woman who worked with his or her brains express any regret for the passing of youth.
A passage is not plain English – still less is it good English – if we are obliged to read it twice to find out what it means.
If people will bring dynamite into a powder factory, they must expect explosions.
We may argue eloquently that ‘Honesty is the best Policy’ – unfortunately, the moment honesty is adopted for the sake of policy it mysteriously ceases to be honesty.
Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.
There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.
It’s not the innocent young things that need gentle handling – it’s the ones that have been frightened and hurt.
People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.
To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick.
I can’t think why fancy religions should have such a ghastly effect on one’s grammar. It’s a kind of intellectual rot that sets in, I’m afraid.
All the children seem to be coming out quite intelligent, thank goodness. It would have been such a bore to be the mother of morons, and it’s an absolute toss-up, isn’t it? If one could only invent them, like characters in books, it would be much more satisfactory to a well-regulated mind.
He was being about as protective as a can-opener.
Here be dragons to be slain, here be rich rewards to gain; If we perish in the seeking, why, how small a thing is death!
It is said that love and a cough cannot be hid.
Everybody is, I suppose, either Classic or Gothic by nature. Either you feel in your bones that buildings should be rectangular boxes with lids to them, or you are moved to the marrow by walls that climb and branch, and break into a inflorescence of pinnacles.