Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.
Clarity is not a characteristic of the human spirit.
I think we’re living in an age which despises humanity and despises bravery and doesn’t need bravery because modern warfare has rather gone beyond bravery. It is a kind of warfare where people are fighting enemies they never see, killing people of whom they know nothing.
Humour very often consists of shrewd perceptions about people. It’s usually fun at someone’s expense. Nowadays if you’re funny at anybody’s expense they run to the UN and say, “I must have an ombudsman to protect me.” You hardly dare have a shrewd perception about anybody.
Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you’re so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.
The ideal companion in bed is a good book.
She has been kissed as often as a police-court Bible, and by much the same class of people.
It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp before they were five years old.
He types his labored column – weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn these dry leaves of his autumn.
When a man is down on his luck he seems to consume all he can get of coffee and doughnuts.
All mothers think their children are oaks, but the world never lacks for cabbages.
I was afraid and did not know what I feared, which is the worst kind of fear.
All real fantasy is serious. Only faked fantasy is not serious. That is why it is so wrong to impose faked fantasy on children...
I was not sure I wanted to issue orders to life; I rather liked the Greek notion of allowing Chance to take a formative hand in my affairs.
In India it is regarded as a good idea to dart in front of an oncoming car, for the car is sure to kill the evil spirits who are pursuing you, and all the rest of your life you will have good luck.
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don’t know what they are conserving.
If you attack Stupidity you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life.
Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman.
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.
I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, “I will tell you a story,” and then he passes the hat.