A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.

Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.

Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.

Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.

A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

Life is a school of probability.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Newspapers have developed what might be called a vested interest in catastrophe. If they can spot a fight they play up that fight. If they can uncover a tragedy they will headline that tragedy.

You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.

It is pain that ages us, not years.

Where your will is ready, your feet are light.

No more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.

emotion without discipline is as dangerous as a high-powered car without brakes.

So, what, you got cigarette burns, too?" Gitanes said. Chip showed his palm, "It's nothing." "Self-inflicted. You pathetic American." "Different kind of prison" Chip said.

Sometimes the wheels of justice grind slowly.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.