The house was very quiet, and the fog ... pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.

Words deserted him immediately. He could only speak when he was not asked to.

Books have to be read (worse luck it takes so long a time). It is the only way of discovering what they contain. A few savage tribes eat them, but reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to the West.

So, Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism

It is the one orderly product our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths; it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden the best evidence we can give of our dignity.

There is much good luck in the world, but it is luck. We are none of us safe. We are children, playing or quarrelling on the line.