Once you touch the trappings of monarchy, like opening an Egyptian tomb, the inside is liable to crumble.

In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.

Muddle is the extra unknown personality in any committee.

Members rise from CMG (known sometimes in Whitehall as 'Call Me God') to KCMG ('Kindly Call Me God') to .. the GCMG ('God Calls Me God').

It has been the bankers' destiny ... to find themselves on the dangerous edge of the world, pointing up the contradictions and cross-purposes. They are not often loved for it.

Snobbery - the "pox Britannica"

Security or opportunity

I like to think of myself as a fairly educated human being, but I'm a very uneducated actor when it comes to movies, directors, producers, actors for that matter.

Listen more to the other players on the bandstand than you do to yourself.

Hillary Clinton wants to put all the miners out of business.

Be the holder of your own Nature. It is a joyful responsibility.

But teaching is like climbing a mountain.

Would it be ironic if we had to go back to Iraq to rid it of the Al Quaeda that wasn't there before we got there to rid it of Al Queda?

Be helpful to all who need your assistance, but don't overdo it. Over-helpfulness too often results in under-performance.

Keep your eye on the task, not on yourself. The task matters, and you are a servant

The poem is the device through which the ordinary world is seen in a new way - engaging, compelling, even beautiful.