Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by read more

Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface.

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer read more

Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.

It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

Not only is there no God, but trying getting a plumber on weekends.

Not only is there no God, but trying getting a plumber on weekends.

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to
society.

He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to
society.

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, read more

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, ''Keep tomorrow dark,'' and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) ''Cheat the Prophet.'' The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.