Coleridge says that to bait a mouse-trap is as much as to say to the mouse, 'Come and have a piece of cheese,' and then, when it accepts the invitation, to do it to death is a betrayal of the laws of hospitality.
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There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.
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There are two sorts of curiosity -- the momentary and the permanent. The momentary is concerned with the odd appearance on the surface of things. The permanent is attracted by the amazing and consecutive life that flows on beneath the surface of things.
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There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
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The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
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Friendship will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.
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No doubt there are other important things in life besides conflict, but there are not many other things so inevitably interesting. The very saints interest us most when we think of them as enganged in a conflict with the Devil.
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