Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.

Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

If the people really knew [the truth] the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know and can't know.

What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.

We are fighting Germany, Austria and drink, and as far as I can see, the greatest of these three deadly foes is drink.

If you want to succeed in politics you must keep your conscience firmly under control.

The world is becoming like a lunatic asylum run by lunatics.

There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.

He has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered his soul.

The man who tries to make the flag an object of a single party is a greater traitor to that flag than any man who fires at it.

You broughtme your darkness& I loved youwith the radianttears of athousand suns.

My biggest life lesson is that the past is the past. I do my best not to bring history into my present. It ain't ever easy, but it usually creates more opportunity for joyful experiences.

But it is clear that the price of labour has no necessary connection with the price of food, since it depends entirely on the supply of labourers compared with the demand.

The hardest thing of all for a soldier is to retreat.

I think one of the best things you can do is write really sad songs that touch some semblance of... I guess 'hope' is the right word?

It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.

He who uses the office he owes to the voters wrongfully and against them is a thief.

A doable goal for me is to finish a marathon under four hours. I'm doing all the training, but the hardest part is eating right.

I'm not a character in any of my books.

So we've moved from an era when women's biology was women's destiny to today, which is an era in which men's biology is men's destiny.