"You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn."
— The Power-House (1913)
"I have long cherished an affection for the elementary type of novel which the Americans call the 'dime novel' and which we know as the 'shocker' - the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible."
— Foreword to The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
"You find hate more among journalists and politicians at home than among fighting men."
— Mr. Standfast (1919)
"The things we call aristocracies and reigning houses are the last places to look for masterful men. They began strongly, but they have been too long in possession. They have been cosseted and comforted and the devil has gone out of their blood. Don't imagine that I undervalue descent. It is not for nothing that a great man leaves posterity. But who is more likely to inherit the fire — the elder son with his flesh-pots or the younger son with his fortune to find?"
— The Path of the King (1921)
"He said that the great offensives of the future would be psychological, and he thought the Governments should get busy about it and prepare their defence ... He considered that the most deadly weapon in the world was the power of mass-persuasion."
— The Three Hostages (1924)
"Our opponents call us Tories ... I am proud to be called a Tory. I understand that the name was first given by Titus Oates
to those who disbelieved in his Popish Plot. What we want today is Toryism — the courage to give the lie to impudent rogues."
to those who disbelieved in his Popish Plot. What we want today is Toryism — the courage to give the lie to impudent rogues."— John Macnab (1925)
"Our ignorance of the future has been wisely ordained of Heaven. For unless man were to be like God and know everything, it is better that he should know nothing. If he knows one fact only, instead of profiting by it he will assuredly land in the soup."
— The Gap in the Curtain (1932)
