Quotes from Heywood Broun

We are under no delusions as to the innate goodness even of very small children. They are bad a great deal of the time, but before it has been knocked out of them, they see no limit to the potentialities of the human will. Theirs is the faith to move mountains, because they do not yet know the fearful heft of them.

Life is not a matter of theories. Life is a matter of facts. It calls on the young and the old alike to face these facts, even though they are hard and sometimes unpleasant.

The editorial strategy of the 'World' is seemingly rested upon the theory that in a desperate cause, it is well to ask a little less than you hope to get. I think you should ask more.

The great threat to the young and pure in heart is not what they read but what they do not read.

Being a well-dressed man is a career, and he who goes in for it has no time for anything else.

The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from beasts.

The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil.

The most casual examination will reveal the fact that all the jokes about the horrible results of masculine cooking and sewing are written by men. It is all part of a great scheme of sex propaganda.

Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them. Accordingly, they don't have to sew buttons.

The great threat to the young and pure in heart is not what they read but what they don't read.

Everybody favors free speech in the slack moments when no axes are being ground.

Brotherhood is not just a Bible word. Out of comradeship can come and will come the happy life for all.

I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream.

The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice is so pleasurable, that I assume it must be evil.

A liberal is a man who leaves the room when the fight begins.

Except that right side up is best, there is not much to learn about holding a baby. There are one hundred and fifty-two distinctly different ways --and all are right! At least all will do.

Hell is paved with great granite blocks hewn from the hearts of those who said, I can do no other.

Men are blind in their own cause.

Posterity is as likely to be wrong as anybody else.

The most prolific period of pessimism comes at twenty-one or thereabouts, when the first attempt is made to translate dreams into reality.

The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from the beasts.

Any given censor is a fool. The very fact that he is a censor indicates that.

As the dragon charged it released huge clouds of hissing steam through its nostrils. It was almost as if a gigantic teapot had gone mad.

With the suggestion of a compromise Gawaine mustered up enough courage to speak. "What will you do if I surrender?" he asked. "Why, I'll eat you," said the dragon. "And if I don't surrender?" "I'll eat you just the same.