Never forget posterity when devising a policy. Never think of posterity when making a speech.

It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness.

More good things in life are lost by indifference than ever were lost by active hostility.

A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.

I did but see her passing by and yet I love her till I die.

When people meet my wife they think better of me. They say: "With a wife like that, he can't be as bad as we thought".

What Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the near north.

Thinking ahead, what really happens to us will depend on how many people we have who are of the great and sober and dynamic middle-class - the strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones.

"I pay my taxes," says somebody, as if that were an act of virtue instead of one of compulsion.

One thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you'll find them increasing every year.

One speaks with great respect of economists, if only because they represent such a variety of opinions.

Friends are only friends when the fights don't matter because you understand each other better in the end.

Ultimately, I don't think you can teach a tone-deaf person how to sing. Some talents you're just born with, unfortunately.

And if you want to know why great editors scare the pants off of writers everywhere, read 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss. The punctuation police are everywhere!

The secret of successful fiction is a continual slight novelty.

If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.

The future belongs to thouse with open minds aand open hearts, who can appreciate beauty in all it's forms.

Too many theorists have a tendency to ignore facts that contradict their convictions.

I require something so horrifically alcoholic that it makes livers tremble with fear and run for their lives when its name is uttered.

We read critics for the perceptions, for what they tell us that we didn't fully grasp when we saw the work. The judgments we can usually make for ourselves.

There is no way forward that isn’t through pain.