To feel keenly the poetry of a morning's roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

When you just have a torch and horror around you... then turn off the torch.

You can't expect devil to show you the path that leads to Heaven.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

I would admit that poetry is something more than mere communication and that if that 'something more' could be abstracted from the whole, it might well prove to be that which makes the whole a poem.

I would like to prove that on TV, everyday lives can be as compelling as the life-styles of the rich and famous. Especially lives that we catch at extraordinary moments.

If you ever find you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

I do say no to lots of things, actually! I know it doesn't look like it. But I have a tendency to a) be rubbish at saying no, and b) be pushed by some kind of Protestant work ethic.

Boris Johnson is a man of great attributes and great qualities.

I've always said that Watership Down is not a book for children. I say: it's a book, and anyone who wants to read it can read it.

The fatal flaw of gravity; when you are down, everything falls down on you.