To him, even the momentary was momentous.
They twisted even decent sin to shapes not to be named:Men were ashamed of honour; but we were not ashamed.
The poet will be discontented even in the streets of heaven. The poet is always in revolt. There again, said Syme irritably, what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it...
The chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist.
Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of people in the world…the division follows lines of real psychological cleavage. I do not offer it lightly. It has been the fruit of more than eighteen minutes...
Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.
Let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing – say Pimlico. If we think what is really best for Pimlico we shall find the thread of thought leads to the throne of the mystic and the arbitra...
It was not the house that grew dull, but I that grew dull in it. My wife was better than all women, and yet I could not feel it.
It is quite futile to argue that man is small compared to the cosmos; for man was always small compared to the nearest tree.
An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. For a man who does not believe in a miracle, a slow miracle would be just as incredible as...
A head can be beaten small enough until it fits the hat.
How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to ever...
Bad is so bad, that we cannot but think good an accident; good is so good, that we feel certain that evil could be explained.
[The materialist] thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism. I think [the materialist] a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies.
We say that the dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher.
We matter to God — God only knows why.
There should be a burnished tablet let into the ground on the spot where some courageous man first ate Stilton cheese, and survived.
The wise man will follow a star, low and large and fierce in the heavens, but the nearer he comes to it the smaller and smaller it will grow,till he finds it the humble lantern over some little inn or...
The principle is this: that in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain and tedium that must be survived, so that the pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle...
The point is not that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving it...