“Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Philip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who Triumphed with him?”

First the pork chops, then morality

In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.

The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.

The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.

The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.

Unhappiness doesn’t grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won’t fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man’s doing.

When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.

It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.

A theater without beer is just a museum

When the house of a great one collapses Many little ones are slain.

Terrible is the temptation to be good.

Would it not be simpler If the Government dissolved the people and elected another?

All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.

People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.

Like traditional upper class families, there are nannies and servants, and the children, you know, come in to say good-night before they go to bed.

I’m guessing the most efficient way would be to transfer an awful lot of technology, but also direct aid to deal with climate emergencies already underway. Hillary [Clinton] has already said $100 billion a year would be appropriate.

… it occurred to me that never again would he be seven years, one month and six days old, so we had better catch these moments while we can.

I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.

I am an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion, that has warmed this cold world’s heart for two thousand years.

I’ve been producing documentaries on global warming for 20 years and have seen the early warnings of extreme weather events come true.

Failure in Afghanistan would have profound consequences for our national security. It would undermine the NATO alliance structure that has been the bedrock of Britain’s defence for the last 60 years… I will not allow this to happen on my watch.

For me, it’s been liberating to put myself in the mind of a fictitious six year-old each day, and rediscover my own curiosity.