What men call friendship is only social intercourse, an exchange of favours and good offices; it comes down to a commercial dealing in which self-esteem always expects to profit.

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises.

We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.

Professional learning does not advance… through the inexorable confirmation of previous certainties, but through a systematic challenge to our present conceptions

You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.

So-called restoration is at least as tricky as brain surgery. Most pictures expire under scalpel and sponge.

My life is basically a big chunk of greatness.

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

Unless you work in demolition, don't burn bridges.

As long as we have our stories there is hope.

Religion is a more or less organized way of remembering that every ministry points to a higher reality.

One of life's few really reliable pleasures: to have a family you love, and to leave them for a week.

I don't usually stink. But I stunk today.