“I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover’s mind if she knew the whole of it.”

We cannot bring ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any respect be wiser than ourselves.

Never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that.

Wine is valued for its price, not its flavor.

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician’s life.

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.

Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.

The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

But who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.

But as we do not light up our houses with our brightest lamps for all comers, so neither did she emit from her eyes their brightest sparks till special occasions for such shining had arisen.

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

When I get there I am not going to be asked, ‘Why weren’t you Moses? Why weren’t you David?’ I am only going to be asked, ‘Why weren’t you Zuscha? Why weren’t you fully you?'”

In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.

While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

I assume the closest members of my family don’t actually want to kill me, but the truth is that I have shamed and hurt them; they have to deal with the outrage that my public statements cause, and undoubtedly some members of my clan do want to kill me for that.

There is no doubt that to walk with Jesus means to walk on the wilder side of life.

Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.

I bet Tom Stoppard doesn’t have to do this’ or There is no doubt David Hare would have deputed this to an underling.’