“All -isms end up in schisms.”

“God save you, my brethren, with all your -isms and schisms! I am a citizen of the world, and a man of Weimer. I have established myself by culture in this choice society; and if anyone knows a better place, let him go to it.”

“Patriotism. I'm uncomfortable with any word that starts with a pat, ends in an ism and has a riot in the middle.”

“All 'isms' run out in the end, and good riddance to most of them. Patriotism for example. [...] If in the interest of making sure we don't blow ourselves off the map once and for all, we end up relinquishing a measure of national sovereignty to some international body, so much the worse for national sovereignty. There is only one Sovereignty that matters ultimately, and it is of another sort altogether.”

“There is something frightful in the fact that the most dangerous thing of all, playing at Christianity, is never included in the list of heresies and schisms.”

“Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Penny, why don't you write a play about Ism-Mania?Penny Sycamore: Ism-Mania?Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Yeah, sure, you know, Communism, Faschism, Voodoo-ism, everybody's got an -ism these days.Penny Sycamore: Oh[laughs]Penny Sycamore: I thought it was some kind of itch or something.Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Well, it's just as catching. When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out, get yourself an -ism and you're in business. ”