The House of Lords is like a glass of champagne that has stood for 5 days.

Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.

No social system will bring us happiness, health and prosperity unless it is inspired by something greater than materialism.

When we are returned to power we want to put in the statute book an act which will make our people citizens of the world before they are citizens of this country.

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

If you begin to consider yourself solely responsible to a political party, you're half-way to a dictatorship.

I believe that the foundation of democratic liberty is a willingness to believe that other people may perhaps be wiser than oneself.

You will be judged by what you succeed at gentlemen, not by what you attempt

A Tory minister can sleep in ten different women's beds in a week. A Labour minister gets it in the neck if he looks at his neighbour's wife over the garden fence.

We have absolutely abandoned any idea of nationalist loyalty. We are deliberately putting a world order before our loyalty to our own country.

Winston Churchill - fifty per cent genius, fifty per cent bloody fool.

In the next world I could not be worse than I am in this.

Say what you wish about media in the Arab world, but say it knowing that no media channel in the world is absolutely free.

To taste the sea all one needs is one gulp.

No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter than you and I.

People will always be more willing to give you things that they think you don't need.

Something unfathomable lies behind every thought ... something for which there aren't any words.

What five books would I like to be remembered for? Well... Tau Zero, I like that one especially. It was somewhat of a tour de force, and I think it got across what I was trying for.

Blue uniforms are real. Cops are a social fiction

I'm lucky that a lot of my friends are in the entertainment industry.

Every pessimist who ever lived has been buried in an unmarked grave. Tomorrow has always been better than today, and it always will be.