Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. - "On the Cryptic and the Elliptic", 1908.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.
The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment. They express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery.
"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."
'My country, right or wrong,' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober.'
Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell. - Tremendous Trifles.
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.
It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.
People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.
People generally quarrel because they can't argue.
You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world.
You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writes in the world.
I realized that ritual will always mean throwing away something; Destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.
Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.
The coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church.
It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.
The object of opening the mind as of opening the mouth is to close it again on something solid.
The worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work.
Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.