“Jowett, in his day, did probably more than any other single man to let some fresh air into the exhausted atmosphere of the [Oxford] common rooms, and to widen the intellectual horizons of the place.”

Now in these troubled times, even more than ever, we need an affirmation that there is goodness and beauty in the world.

My dear child, you must believe in God despite what the clergy tells you.

Young men make great mistakes in life; for one thing, they idealize love too much.

Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.

There is a great deal of hard lying in the world; especially among people whose characters are above suspicion.

I am not blaming the past. … But I want the peace of God to settle on the future.

Precautions are always blamed. When successful they are said to be unnecessary.

If you don’t find a God by five o’clock this afternoon you must leave the college.

It is most important in this world to be pushing, but it is fatal to seem so.

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.

Grace is an energy; not a mere sentiment; not a mere thought of the Almighty; not even a word of the Almighty.

We can’t search or attain well being, wealth, studying, justice or kindness usually. Action is all the time particular, concrete, individualized, distinctive.

Give the clergy your sympathy; don’t give them anything else.

The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.

Plato’s dialogues bear at least some similarities to the classical plays.

One man is as good as another until he has written a book.

We’ve been in lots of places that I suppose, by Oxford standards, would be considered illiterate, but everyone’s completely conversant with the idea that here is a number, and that number is above it, and that’s too high. It’s not a very complicated idea.

There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that’s all.

But the headmaster happened to have been to Cambridge and decided to try and push some of us towards Oxford and Cambridge.

My school was a state school in Leeds and the headmaster usually sent students to Leeds University but he didn’t normally send them to Oxford or Cambridge.

I’m an Einstein of the streets and an Oxford scholar of common sense.

In the UK cycling was very popular until the end of the 1950’s but it really lost out to our love affair with the car.

just look at Oxford and Cambridge.