Ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. The moralist cannot teach what is revealed; he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach.
The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear. It is the court fool, not the foolish courtier, whom the king can least afford to lose.
Unless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail.
Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.
People that are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
Men who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
