Truth is what every man sees lurking at the bottom of his own soul, like the oyster shell housewives put in the kitchen kettle to collect the lime from the water. By and by each man's iridescent oyster shell of Truth becomes coated with the lime of prejudice and hearsay.

There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.

The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.

The world has been printing books for 450 years, and yet gunpowder still has a wider circulation. Never mind! Printer's ink is the greater explosive: it will win.

One of the penalties of being a human being is other human beings.

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty.

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

The Ten Commandments are not really commandments, but they are valuable suggestions.

And how is one to know what is Truth? He thinks one thing before lunch; after a stirring bout with corned beef and onions the shining vision is strangely altered. Which is Truth?

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, "Truth", Mince Pie

Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.

It's a good thing to turn your mind upside down now and then, like an hour-glass, to let the particles run the other way.

Truth is the ricochet of a prejudice bouncing off a fact.

My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated, but not signed.

Our mind is dreadfully active sometimes, and the other day we began to speculate on Truth. Our friends are still avoiding us. Every man knows what Truth is, but it is impossible to utter it. The face of your listener, his eyes mirthful or sorry, his eager expectance or his churlish disdain insensibly distort your message. You find yourself saying what you know he expects you to say, or (more often) what he expects you not to say. You may not be aware of this, but that is what happens. In order that the world may go on and human beings thrive, nature has contrived that the Truth may not often be uttered.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, "Truth", Mince Pie

If a man lived in a desert for six months without food, drink or companionship he would be reasonably free from prejudice and would be in a condition to enunciate great truths. But even then his vision of reality would have been warped by so much sand and so many sunsets. Even if he survived and brought us his Truth with all the gravity and long night-gown of a Hindu faker, as soon as any one listened to him his message would no longer be Truth. The complexion of his audience, the very shape of their noses, would subtly undermine his magnificent aloofness.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, "Truth", Mince Pie

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street

No one ... appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as a dog does.

Truth can only be attained by those whose systems are untainted by secret influences, such as love, envy, ambition, food, college education and moonlight in spring.