Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interim period, appeasement of Fascism.

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

The nastiness of women [in the 14th century] was generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case fading.

To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.

More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life.

Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so.

The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.

What his imagination is to the poet, facts are to the historian. His exercise of judgment comes in their selection, his art in their arrangement.

Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.

One must stop conducting research before one has finished. Otherwise, one will never stop and never finish.

Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.

People who take a long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

Some people just want to be part of the story, even if it’s a story that’s completely fabricated.

Our unconsciousness is like a vast subterranean factory with intricate machinery that is never idle where work goes on day and night from the time we are born until the moment of our death.

I have always thought that every woman should marry, and no man.

If we could get Russia to help us get rid of ISIS, if we could actually be friendly with Russia, wouldn't that be a good thing? Is that so bad?

As a filmmaker you get typecast just as much as an actor does, so I'm trapped in a genre that I love, but I'm trapped in it!

Three fires is the international distress signal.

I feel like I swallowed a Magritte. Like on the inside, I'm made of clouds and floating eyes, green apples, and slowly rising men in bowler hats.

When I look back at The Judy Garland Show, I have such mixed feelings. It broke my mother's heart when they canceled it.

Of course I don't look busy, I did it right the first time.