Heretics (1905)

Their wordsBut there are some people, nevertheless—and I am one of them—who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe.

Their wordsA man who is perpetually thinking of whether this race or that race is strong, of whether this cause or that cause is promising, is the man who will never believe in anything long enough to make it succeed.

Their wordsHe admires England, but he does not love her; for we admire things with reasons, but love them without reasons.

Their wordsThe truth is, that it is quite an error to suppose that absence of definite convictions gives the mind freedom and agility. A man who believes something is ready and witty, because he has all his weapons about him.

Their wordsAnd the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones.

Their wordsRitual is really much older than thought; it is much simpler and much wilder than thought.

Their wordsThe one genuinely dangerous and immoral way of drinking wine is to drink it as a medicine.

Their wordsI am speaking in no affected contrariety, but in the simplicity of a genuine personal impression, when I say that this journalism offends as being not sensational or violent enough. The real vice is not that it is startling, but that it is quite insupportably tame.

Their wordsPride is a weakness in the character; it dries up laughter, it dries up wonder, it dries up chivalry and energy.

Their wordsThis complaint against them stands, that they would make us simple in the unimportant things, but complex in the important things.

Their wordsIt is necessary to cease to be a man in order to do justice to a microbe; it is not necessary to cease to be a man in order to do justice to men.

Their wordsNow, the psychological discovery is merely this, that whereas it had been supposed that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by extending our ego to infinity, the truth is that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by reducing our ego to zero.

Their wordsAnd of all the forms in which science, or pseudo-science, has come to the rescue of the rich and stupid, there is none so singular as the singular invention of the theory of races.

Their wordsThe man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men.

Their wordsIn one sense, at any rate, it is more valuable to read bad literature than good literature. Good literature may tell us the mind of one man; but bad literature may tell us the mind of many men.

Their wordsThe truth is, as I have said, that in this sense the two qualities of fun and seriousness have nothing whatever to do with each other, they are no more comparable than black and triangular.

Their wordsThe whole thing is a trick of words. America is not young, New Zealand is not new.

Their wordsDemocracy is not founded on pity for the common man; democracy is founded on reverence for the common man, or, if you will, even on fear of him.

Their wordsTruths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion.

Their wordsFires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.