"Is it not so with many of the gods men set up? They are not and never were, but their priests are and shake the spear of power and pierce the hearts of men with terrors. What, then, does it matter about the gods whom no man sees, when the priest is there shaking the spear of power and piercing the hearts of their worshippers? The god is the priest or the priest is the god—have it which way you like"

"The world is very old and there have been peoples in it of whom we have heard nothing"

"when men seek a god . . . they make one like themselves, only larger, uglier, and more evil . . . Also, often they say that this god was once their king, since at the bottom all worship their ancestors who gave them life, if they worship anything at all, and often, too, because they gave them life, they think that they must have been devils. Great ancestors were the first gods . . . and if they had not been evil they would never have been great. Look at Chaka, the Lion of the Zulus. He is called great because he was so wicked and cruel, and so it was and is with others if they succeed, though, if they fail, men speak otherwise of them."

". . . little in the world is pretty, except the world itself."

"It is what is in a man that matters . . . not what he looks like outside, as women often used to say to me when I was young"

". . . I thought I saw the mind of Providence acting through Hans. Yes, the cunning of the Hottentot had been used by the Powers above to sweep from the earth a vile tyranny and to destroy a blood-soaked idol and its worshippers."

". . . now and again it is wise to cease from being wise, lest Heaven should grow jealous of our wisdom and want to share it."

". . . if you live long enough, you will learn that this world is full of deceptions"

"You may all have noticed that however piously disposed, there is a point at which the majority of women become very practical indeed."

". . . is there anything so mighty as water in the world, I wonder"

"Never before was there such a sudden disrobement of an ecclesiastical dignitary draped in all his trappings."

". . . we are all fools in our different ways, and how can any one dig out of his heart the folly that his mother put there before he was born?"

". . . disillusionment is often painful, you know"

"Superstition is still king of most of the world, though often it calls itself Religion."

". . . all men are cowards . . . in one matter or another, though in the rest they may be brave enough."

"So kick away the burning sticks from beneath the water of your anger and let it cease from boiling, and go forth as you have promised, to see wonderful things and do wonderful deeds and snatch the pure and innocent out of the hands of evil gods or men."

". . . there are always plenty of fools in the world and the fool who comes after is just as big as the fool who went before. Death spills the water of wisdom upon the sand . . . and sand is thirsty stuff that soon grows dry again. If it were not so . . . men would soon stop falling in love with women, and yet even great ones . . . fall in love."

". . . these priests, after the fashion of priests all the world over, now aspired to the absolute rule of the race"

"Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your own life when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And should we not, perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we could not remember, foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven, but believe me, the real Heaven is one of dreamless sleep, since life and wakefulness, however high their scale and on whatever star, mean struggle, which being so oft mistaken, must breed sorrow—or remorse that spoils all."

". . . the extreme of unmorality is as fascinating to study as the extreme virtue and often more so."

"While we breathe there is hope, and all that seems lost still may be won"

". . . the dead keep their wisdom to themselves"

"The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two thousand years; witness that of Cleopatra with Cæsar, Mark Antony and other gentlemen. The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy, even in boarding-schools, and it is felt that were she by some miracle to be blotted out of the book of history, the loss would be enormous. The same applied to Helen, Phryne, and other bad lots. In fact now that one comes to think of it, most of the attractive personages in history, male or female, especially the latter, were bad lots. When we find someone to whose name is added “the good” we skip."

". . . the mad often see well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god . . . The mind in its secret places knows all things . . . although it seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of vision or the fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns through the gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever fools may think, often madness is true wisdom."

"Yet it is true that sun and moon and earth are born of the same black womb of chaos. Therefore in the beginning they were identical, as doubtless they will be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light space with a flame at which the mocking gods that made them may warm their hands. Well, so it is with men, . . . whose soul-stuff is drawn from the gulf of Spirit by Nature’s hand, and, cast upon the cold air of this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each different to the other and yet, be sure, the same."

"It is only the nervous that climb the highest points of anything, and this is true of fights as of all others."

". . . there is a way out of most difficulties if only it can be hit upon."

"In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere and no one seems to appreciate them. If they think of them at all it is to grumble about the cost of their upkeep. I wish they could have experienced what a lack of them means in a wild country during times of excessive rain, and the same remark applied to roads. You should think more of your blessings, my friends, as the old woman said to her complaining daughter who had twins two years running, adding that they might have been triplets."

"Human nature does not change, Allan, and wine and women are ancient snares."

"I wonder whether many people understand, as I do, how entirely distinct and how variable are these moods which sway us, or at any rate some of us, at sundry periods of our lives. As I think I have already suggested, at one time we are all spiritual; at another all physical; at one time we are sure that our lives here are as a dream and a shadow and that the real existence lies elsewhere; at another that these brief days of ours are the only business with which we have to do and that of it we must make the best. At one time we think our loves much more immortal than the stars; at another that they are mere shadows cast by the baleful sun of desire upon the shallow and fleeting water we call Life which seems to flow out of nowhere into nowhere. At one time we are full of faith, at another all such hopes are blotted out by a black wall of Nothingness, and so on ad infinitum. Only very stupid people, or humbugs, are or pretend to be, always consistent and unchanging."

". . . all are still savage at heart, even you and I. For what is termed culture is but coat upon coat of paint laid on to hide our native colour, and often there is poison in the paint."

"But what of names, which often enough mean nothing at all?"

". . . your praying men . . . are cast in one mould and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say, not thinking for themselves . . . Some of them think . . . and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings, and speaks through a mask carved by his father’s fathers."

"The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the moths which live."

"Oh! it is a strange world, full of jest to those who can see the strings that work it."

"Forgive me since I acted for the best, only until the end no one ever knows what is the best."

". . . the time of kings is not their own."

". . . even a king may choose his own wife sometimes."

"It seems that in this world we never can be content . . . we only think that we should be if things were otherwise than they are."

". . . feasts are sometimes followed by want and rejoicings by sorrow and victories by defeat, and splendid sins by repentance and slow climbing back to good again."

"When one can think of nothing, it is best to follow the counsel of those who can think of something; also to hunt rather than to be hunted."

". . . all joy grows from the root of pain."

". . . gifts have a way of coming to those who do not desire them"

". . . why do you seek to peer into the future, which from day to day will unroll itself as does a scroll? Be content with the present, man, and take what Fate gives you of good or ill, not seeking to learn what offerings he hides beneath his robe in the days and the years and the centuries to come."

"While you are a man, live the life of a man, and when you become a spirit, live the life of a spirit. But do not seek to mix the two together like oil and wine, and thus spoil both."

"The tool carves the statue and the hand holds the tool but the spirit guides the band."

". . . too great holiness often thwarts itself and ends in trouble for the unholy flesh."

"Never stretch out your hand to Death till he stretches out his to you"

". . . who ever sees Wisdom until she is flying away?"

". . . do not lie except when you are obliged, for jugglers who play with too many knives are apt to cut their fingers."