Israel Zangwill

“The Creator has – I say it in all reverence - drawn a myriad red herrings across the track, but the true scientist refuses to be baffled by superficial appearances in detecting the secrets of Nature. The vulgar herd catches at the gross apparent fact, but the man of insight knows what lies on the surfaces does lie.”

“In how many lives does love really play a dominant part? The average taxpayer is no more capable of a 'grand passion' than of a grand opera.”

“New York is the great stone desert.”

“No, the real American has not yet arrived. He is only in the Crucible, I tell you - he will be the fusion of all races, perhaps the coming superman.”

“The only true love is love at first sight; second sight dispels it.”

“No Jew was ever fool enough to turn Christian unless he was a clever man.”

“It takes two men to make one brother.”

“A man likes his wife to be just clever enough to appreciate his cleverness, and just stupid enough to admire it.”

“America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming!”

“Everything changes but change.”

“Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan - spoiled.”

“Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.”

“The Past: Our cradle, not our prison; there is danger as well as appeal in its glamour. The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition.”