In these days of faith-cures, and hypnotism, and telepathy, and subliminalities – why, the simple old world grows very confusing. But rarely, very rarely novel.

Once a man strays out of the common herd, he's more likely to meet wolves in the thickets than angels.

It was a pity thoughts always ran the easiest way, like water in old ditches.

After all, what is every man? A horde of ghosts – like a Chinese nest of boxes – oaks that were acorns that were oaks. Death lies behind us, not in front – in our ancestors, back and back until...

Science, I am told, is making great strides, experimenting, groping after things which no sane man has ever dreamed of before – without being burned alive for it.

Fancies were all very well for a change, but must be only occasional guests in a world devoted to reality.

Yes, after all, this by now was his customary loneliness: there was little else he desired for the present than the hospitality of the dark.

The time's gone by for sentiment and all that foolery. Mercy's all very well but after all it's justice that clinches the bargain.

It was to be a day of queer experiences. He had never realized with how many miracles mere everyday life is besieged.

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

In early youth as we contemplate our coming life we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.

False gods must be repudiated, but that is not all: The reasons for their existence must be sought beneath their masks.

It doesn't matter what it is.What matters is what it will become.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.

I got skin on the game. I want to serve my country.

Happiness is the most important thing in the world, without it, you live a life of depression.

If you expect respect from others, show it first to yourself. You can't expect from others what you don't give to yourself.

I think we need to prepare for the worst, and so I support energy efficiency measures.

Nowadays, when you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it