 Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy. |
| In praising science, it does not follow that we must adopt the very poor philosophies which scientific men have constructed. In philosophy they have much more to learn than to teach. |
| Gambling is a disease of barbarians superficially civilized. |
| If the universe is running down like a clock, the clock must have been wound up at a date which we could name if we knew it. The world, if it is to have an end in time, must have had a beginning in time. |
| Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not. |
| A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings. |
| What is originality? Undetected plagiarism. |
| The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other people's. |
| Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction. |
| Democracy is only an experiment in government, and it has the obvious disadvantage of merely counting votes instead of weighing them. |
| The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense. |
| It was said that Mr. Gladstone could persuade most people of most things, and himself of anything. |
| All faith consists essentially in the recognition of a world of spiritual values behind, yet not apart from, the world of natural phenomena. |
| The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born. |
| Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the affinity and attraction which we feel in ourselves. |
| A good government remains the greatest of human blessings and no nation has ever enjoyed it. |
| The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things. |
| We tolerate shapes in human beings that would horrify us if we saw them in a horse. |
| Bereavement is the sharpest challenge to our trust in God; if faith can overcome this, there is no mountain which it cannot remove. |
| To marry is to get a binocular view of life. |
