Society and the World

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

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

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

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.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good.

The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately, in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.

We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.

Laugh and the world laughs with you;

O brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother.

The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.

‘Shoot, if you must, this old grey head,

Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,

Camerado, this is no book,