A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.

History provides no precise guidelines.

But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past.

Reading maketh a full man

What we [writers] do might be done in solitude and with great desperation, but it tends to produce exactly the opposite. It tends to produce community and in many people hope and joy.

Being a dancer is my metaphor for life because you have to know your body. Being a dancer and paying attention to fitness is all about moving in balance.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

Why is it that so few people are truly free? Because they try to conform to ideas, concepts, and beliefs in their heads.

I love learning new techniques.

A room is, after all, a place where you hide from the wolves. That's all any room is.

I'm 99 today and I'll be 100 tomorrow. It's another day.

I think people just love to win.

I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.