Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.

Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.

Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

The greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything; it is he that gets the most out of life.

Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.

Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.

The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.