Society and the World

A reasoning, self-sufficing thing,

Plain living and high thinking are no more:

Plain living and high thinking are no more:

Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee,

And much it grieved my heart to think

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

The still, sad music of humanity,

On that best portion of a good man’s life,

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

The scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges.

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.

Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day.

What is your aim in philosophy?—To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.

The philosopher’s treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.