Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.

Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

The greatest enemy of authority, therefore, is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter.

One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.

There is a strange interdependence between thoughtlessness and evil.

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.

Only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

A diamond only truly appreciates pressure the day it begins to shine.

I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.

Ours was the age of enlightenment, he said, when the battle cry was, ‘We must know, we shall know!’, and reason would depose superstition and we be liberated by it.

None of them want to delay. Understand that. None of them.

Avoid sin: ... all your deeds are faithfully recorded.

We all do foolish things when we are in love. Don't we, your grace?

The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.

There is no more dangerous country in the world today than Pakistan.

Humanity will live as long as there are humans.

There is one crucial rule that must be followed in all creative meetings. Never speak first. At least at the start, your job is to shut up.