Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.
I work as my father drank.
War can so easily be gilt with romance and heroism and solemn national duty and patriotism and the like by persons whose superficial literary and oratorical talent covers an abyss of Godforsaken folly.
Our way of getting an army able to fight the German army is to declare war on Germany just as if we had such an army, and then trust to the appalling resultant peril and disaster to drive us into wholesale enlistment.
That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
Literature is like any other trade; you will never sell anything unless you go to the right shop.
You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.
A part of eugenic politics would finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber. A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people’s time to look after them.
I would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot.
Very nice sort of place, Oxford, I should think, for people that like that sort of place. They teach you to be a gentleman there. In the polytechnic they teach you to be an engineer or such like. See?
When God created man and woman, he did not take a patent. That’s why any imbecile has been able to do so ever since.
All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions.
Besides, do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?
Reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.
Justice is justice though it’s always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
Be like the sun and meadow, which are not in the least concerned about the coming winter.
People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.
The whole strength of England lies in the fact that the enormous majority of the English people are snobs.
Poverty doesn’t bring unhappiness; it brings degradation.
Being a mother means that your heart is no longer yours; it wanders wherever your children do.