Who said this? Part I

1. "There are still things worth fighting against."
2. "It is better to be narrow-minded than to have no mind, to hold limited and rigid principles than none at all. That is the danger which faces so many people today - to have no considered opinions on any subject, to put up with what is wasteful and harmful with the excuse that 'there is good in everything'."
3. "For generations we English have been the least ceremonious of nations. That was because we enjoyed complete self-confidence in our order. We preserved, behind our easy-going and eccentric ways, a basic decorum. It is time we awoke to the danger of finding ourselves a people of slatterns and louts."
4. "This is not the age reformation but of defence, when every man of goodwill should devote all his powers to preserving the few good things remaining to us from our grandfathers."
5. "How will this absurd little jumble of antagonising forces, of negro rhythm and psychoanalysis, of mechanical invention and decaying industry, of infinitely expanding means of communication and an infinitely receding substance of the communicable, of liberty and inertia, how will this ever cool and crystallise out? How shall our own age look in the fancy dress parties and charity pageants of 2030?"
6. "In time to come it is likely that we and our children will look back with increasing curiosity to the free and fecund life of Victorian England ... The railings which adorned the homes of all classes were symbols of independence and privacy valued in an age which valued liberty above equality."
7. "Most of the world's troubles seem to come from people who are too busy. If only politicians and scientists were lazier, how much happier we should all be."
8. "I believe in government; that men cannot live together without rules but that these should be kept at the bare minimum of safety; that there is no form of government ordained from God as being better than any other; that the anarchic elements in society are so strong that it is a whole-time task to keep the peace."
9. "Barbarism is never finally defeated; given propitious circumstances, men and women who seem quite orderly will commit every conceivable atrocity. The danger does not come merely from habitual hooligans; we are all potential recruits for anarchy. "
10. "I was not brought up to regard the evasion of the police as the prime aim of education, nor has my subsequent observation of the world give me any reason to think that either the wickedest men or even the worst citizens are to be found in prison. The real enemies of society are sitting snug behind typewriters and microphones pursuing their work of destruction amid popular applause."
11. "War is an absolute loss, but it admits of degrees; it is very bad to fight, but it is worse to lose."
12. "In a war, it is notorious, opponents soon forget the cause of their quarrel, continue the fight for the sake of fighting and in the process assume a resemblance to what they abhorred."
13. "There is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the fully salary of a benificed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief."
14. "The splendid thing about Education is that everyone wants it and, like influenza, you can give it away without losing any of it yourself."
15. "Unsystematic discipline varying with the mood of the household makes a far better training for life than the wisest code of rules. It is very bewildering for the old-fashioned child, brought up to a system of rigid justice and reasoned recompense, to find himself plunged into a world where things are less logically operated. The modern mother will see just as much of her children as she finds amusing and they will thus learn the excellent principle that they must make themselves agreeable if they want attention."
16. "The more influential and intelligent young schoolmasters came [back from the Great War] with their own faith sadly shaken in those very standards they had fought to preserve. The returned with a jolly tolerance of everything that seemed 'modern'. Every effort was made to encourage the children at the public schools to 'think for themselves'. When they should have been whipped and taught Greek paradigms, they were arguing about birth control and nationalisation. Their crude little opinions were treated with respect. It is hardly surprising that they were Bolshevik at 18 and born at 20."
17. "To know and love one another human being is the root of all wisdom."
18. "Certain trades and classes seek personal publicity; not so respectable writers, for their entire vocation is one of self-expression and it seems obvious to them that if they cannot make themselves understood in years of laborious writing, they will not succeed in a few minutes of conversation. So when we see interviewers advancing, we fly."
19. "A writer must face the choice of becoming an artist or a prophet. He can shut himself up at his desk and selfishly seek pleasure in perfecting his own skill or he can pace about, directing dooms and exhortations on the topics of the day. The recluse at the desk has a chance of giving abiding pleasure to others; the publicist has none at all."
20. "Humility is not a virtue propitious to the artist. It is often pride, emulation, avarice, malice - all odious qualities - which drive a man to complete, elaborate, refine, destroy, renew his work until he has made something that gratifies his pride and envy and greed. And in doing so he enriches the world more than the generous and the good, though he may lose his own soul in the process. That is the paradox of artistic achievement."
21. "Literature is the right use of language irrespective of the subject or reason of the utterance. A political speech may and sometimes is, literature; a sonnet to the moon may be , and often is, trash."
22. "The necessary elements of style are lucidity, elegance and individuality; these three qualities combine to form a preservative which ensures the nearest approximation to permanence in the fugitive world of letters."
23. "Most men and women of genius have entertained preposterous opinions."