All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.
People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.
The only defensible war is a war of defense.
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking...
No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.
A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over... is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.
It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.
It is not funny that anything else should fall down only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only...
The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.
In matters of truth the fact that you don't want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.
Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.
When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.
I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.
When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?