They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was...
We all disapprove of prostitution; but we do not all approve of purity. The only way to discuss the social evil is to get at once to the social ideal. We can all see the national madness; but what is...
Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump you may be freeing him from being a camel.
Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
Satan fell by the force of gravity.
There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right it is the ideal American who is all wrong.
To be simple is the best thing in the world.
A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life and find solace in fantasy.
A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.
It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.
A tragedy means always a man's struggle with that which is stronger than man.
True contentment... is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.
Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable faith means believing the unbelievable and hoping means to hope when things are hopeless.
Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. But what does he do if there is no forest? He grows a forest to hide it in.
A man must love a thing very much if he not only practises it without any hope of fame and money but even practises it without any hope of doing it well.
He who lives in the future lives in a featureless blank he lives in impersonality he lives in Nirvana. The past is democratic because it is a people. The future is despotic because it is a caprice...
Therefore it is the paradox of history that each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.
The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
Large organization is loose organization. Nay it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganization.
The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.