A.P. Herbert Quotes

We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.

Love is the true price of love.

Lord! who hath praise enough?

He suffered from a rush of words to the head.

We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.

It may be that it is only by the grace of granitization that we have continents to live on.

If there is a difference between what is said and what is done, only a fool believes what was said.

Good words quench more then a bucket of water.

Membership in a conspiracy, as in an army, frees people from the sense of personal responsibility.

A good companion is one you wouldn't mind dying with.

Chance is the nature of our universe. [...] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable.

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now it's complete because it's ended here."

Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make them intellectual subjects. It is possible to know so much about a subject that you become totally ignorant.

There's hope left in these dusty chords. There's a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.

Yeeres know more then bookes.

Drought never brought dearth.

Divine grace was never slow.

God keepe me from foure houses, an Vsurers, a Taverne, a Spittle, and a Prison.

To stay awake all night adds a day to your life.

The unclouded eye was better, no matter what it saw.

Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.

She looked at patches of blackness. Black is a blind remembering, she thought.

... motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches.

The singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest attention. It is a thing of ultimate beauty. Leto II

Often I must speak otherwise than I think. This is called diplomacy.

An oath that is not to bee made is not to be kept.

We never completely escape the teachers of our childhood nor any of the patterns that formed us.

A man's flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe.

When you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, you can be sure you're dead.

There were no exceptions for the aged, the ill, the women in pregnancy.

When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training.

No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch.

Peace for any prolonged period of time is impossible. Humans have a natural thirst for chaos and war is the most readily available form of chaos.

The day hums sweetly when you have enough bees working for you.

Words and feathers the wind carries away.

Justice? Who asks for justice? We make our own justice ... Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.

When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.

Argument closes off the doors of the senses. It always masks violence. Continued too long, argument always leads to violence.

A charming fellow, and so clever: he models himself on me.

The mind goes on working no matter how we try to hold it back.

The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.

Cynicism is the humour of hatred

The national sport of England is obstacle-racing. People fill their rooms with useless and cumbersome furniture, and spend the rest of their lives in trying to dodge it.

Paired opposites define your longings and those longings imprison you.

The essence of humour is surprise; that is why you laugh when you see a joke in Punch.

Death makes a prophet's voice louder.

To have money is a feare, not to have it a griefe.

A penny spar'd is twice got.

Surely if each one saw another's heart, There would be no commerce, No sale or bargain pass: all would disperse And live apart.

Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount.