Robert Lynd

“The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.”

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”

“Most of us can remember a time when a birthday - especially if it was one's own - brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.”

“There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.”

“The best of all governments is the one that is least perceptible.”

“It is in games that many men discover their paradise.”

“No man is a failure who is enjoying life.”

“The world is not a prison-house, but a kind of spiritual kindergarten where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks.”

“Laziness is a form of self-preservation.”

“The true revolutionary is the man who can buy the 'Times' and walk away from the news-stand without looking at the headlines.”

“It is a glorious thing to be a human being, but it is a shameful thing to be a human being and not to be kind and charitable.”

“Most human beings are farsighted: they are more interested in the distant future than in the present.”