To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.

No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.

Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.

The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.

It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.

In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.

I think middle-age is the best time, if we can escape the fatty degeneration of the conscience which often sets in at about fifty.