The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.

The mere brute pleasure of reading—the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

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

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another.

A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.