Each man's private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly w….

It is not permissible to lie merely to save one's face. But it is sometimes permissible to lie to save another person's face..

There are inquiries which are a sort of moral burglary..

The insidiousness of science lies in its claim to be not a subject, but a method. You could ignore a subject; no subject is all-inclusive. But a meth….

On the whole, I should say that the person who likes to lie should never, in any circumstances, be allowed to. Leave the lying to the people who hate….

It is not strange that some of our revoltes preach trial marriage: for the only safe way to marry them at all would be on trial. Until you had defini….

... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two ve….

... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things of the spirit. No ….

Society, by insisting on conventions, has merely insisted on certain convenient signs by which we may know that a man is considering, in daily life, ….

Some of the men and women who will not say in so many words the thing which is not, will deliberately give a false impression. They are not the serva….

[Science] has challenged the super-eminence of religion; it has turned all philosophy out of doors except that which clings to its skirts; it has thr….

democracy always makes for materialism, because the only kind of equality that you can guarantee to a whole people is, broadly speaking, physical..

Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism..

... there are some who, believing that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds, and that to-morrow is necessarily better than to-day, may ….

The principle of fashion is . . . the principle of the kaleidoscope. A new year can only bring us a new combination of the same elements; and about o….

Successful socialism depends on the perfectibility of man. Unless all, or nearly all, men are high-minded and clear-sighted, it isbound to be a rotte….

One of the reasons, surely, why women have been credited with less perfect veracity than men is that the burden of conventional falsehood falls chief….

... it is a great mistake to confuse conventionality with simplicity ... it takes a good deal of intelligence and a great many inhibitions to follow ….

I know exaggerators of both kinds: people whose lies are only picturesque adjectives, and people whose picturesque adjectives are only lies..

Social distinctions concern themselves ultimately with whom you may and may not marry..