But after being fired at once or twice, The ear becomes more Irish, and less nice.

Somebody must trespass on the taboos of modern nationalism, in the interests of human reason. Business can't. Diplomacy won't. It has to be people like us.

I have learned that the cost of everything from a royal suite to a bottle of soda water can be halved by the simple expedient of saying it must be halved.

There, carried high on a bank of clouds, hovers a shape, a triangle in the sky. This is the Holy Mountain Athos, station of a faith where all the years have stopped.

Herat, 8 December. What a day it was! God save me from any more adventures on a drained stomach.

All tragedies are finished bya death, All comedies are ended bya marriage; The future states of both are left to faith.

All present life is but an interjection, An'Oh!'or 'Ah!'of joy or misery, Or a 'Ha! ha!'or 'Bah!'a yawn or 'Pooh!' Of which perhaps the latter is most true.

The mountains look on Marathon And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dreamed that Greece might still be free.

War does one good—it teaches people geography.

Naysayers are frightened by their own power.

My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth.

A leader cannot avoid being hated. This hatred is directly proportional to his influence and power. A person who does not wish to be hated should avoid leadership roles.

Books make great gifts because they can unveil hidden secrets.

Since all life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of all.

I'm happy to report that everybody whose face I've wanted to punch on Earth has already been punched.

Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy.

Don't you think almost anything can be funny? Almost anything.

Often the simplest song is the hardest to write.