Atheism is too theological.
All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.
An almost unnatural vigilance is really required of the citizen because of the horrible rapidity with which human institutions grow old.
And it did for one wild moment cross my mind that, perhaps, those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other.
Any man who preaches real love is bound to beget hate. It is as true of democratic fraternity as a divine love; sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy; but real love has always ended in bloodshed.
Nothing is certain by uncertainty.
The problem of disbelieving in God is not that a man ends up believing nothing. Alas, it is much worse. He ends up believing anything.
You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it is horrible because I could commit it.
A man looking at a hippopotamus may sometimes be tempted to regard a hippopotamus as an enormous mistake; but he is also bound to confess that a fortunate inferiority prevents him personally from making such mistakes.
We actually love ourselves more than we love joy.
The great saint may be said to mix all his thoughts with thanks. All goods look better when they look like gifts.
I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all.
There are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands.
No man can break any of the Ten Commandments. He can only break himself against them.
Not only does “orthodox” no longer mean being right, it practically means being wrong.
And it is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely.
Every politician is emphatically a promising politician.
I should say that psycho-analysis was confession without absolution.
In the modern conflict between the Smile and the Laugh, I am all in favor of laughing. The recent stage of culture and criticism might very well be summed up as the men who smile criticizing the men who laugh.
Ingratitude is surely the chief of the intellectual sins of man. He takes his political benefits for granted, just as he takes the skies and the seasons for granted.