All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.
The man who says, ‘my country right or wrong’ is like the man who says, ‘my mother drunk or sober’
La mejor prueba de la cultura y la liberalidad de un hombre es su actitud ante las cosas que nunca sucedieron.
Sometimes he even embarrassed the company by phrases suggesting that there was some difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.
Your next-door neighbor is not a man; he is an environment. He is the barking of a dog; he is the noise of a piano; he is a dispute about a party wall; he is drains that are worse than yours, or roses that are better than yours.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.
In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask.
Architecture approaches nearer than any other art to being irrevocable because it is so difficult to get rid of.
The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.
A great classic means a man whom one can praise without having read.
Cleanliness is not next to godliness nowadays, for cleanliness is made an essential and godliness is regarded as an offence.
Grey is a colour that always seems on the eve of changing to some other colour.
Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales-because they find them romantic.
The cross cannot be defeated for it is defeat.
I do not believe that any human being is fundamentally happier for being finally lost in a crowd, even if it is called a crowd of comrades.
The true savage is a slave, and is always talking about what he must do; the true civilised man is a free man, and is always talking about what he may do.
For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value of any of them is that they bear the image of the king.
When once you have got hold of a vulgar joke, you may be certain that you have got hold of a subtle and spiritual idea.
It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion.
If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.