Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.

The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.

Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.

It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness.

Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch.

Some closing of the gates is inevitable after thirty, if the mind itself is to become a creative power.