“An historic institution, which never went right, is really quite much of a miracle as an institution that cannot go wrong.”

“The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.”

“The modern writers who have suggested, in a more or less open manner, that the family is a bad institution, have generally confined themselves to suggesting, with much sharpness, bitterness, or pathos, that perhaps the family is not always very congenial. Of course the family is a good institution because it is uncongenial. It is wholesome precisely because it contains so many divergencies and varieties. It is, as the sentimentalists say, like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy.”

“The silly sentimentalists of the French Revolution talked of the Rights of Man! We hate Rights as we hate Wrongs. We have abolished Right and Wrong.And Right and Left, said Syme with a simple eagerness, I hope you will abolish them too. They are much more troublesome to me.”

“The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.”

“Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.”

“She had never really listened to anyone in her life; which, some said, was why she had survived.”