No war is inevitable until it breaks out.

There is nothing nicer than nodding off while reading. Going fast asleep and then being woken by the crash of the book on the floor, then saying to yourself, well it doesn't matter much. An admirable feeling.

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

One of the penalties of being president of the United States is that you must subsist for four years without drinking anything except Californian wine.

The male clerk with his quill pen and copper-plate handwriting had gone for good. The female short-hand typist took his place. It was a decisive moment in women's emancipation.

The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.

We are apt to say that a foreign policy is successful only when the country, or at any rate the governing class, is united behind it. In reality, every line of policy is repudiated by a section, often by an influential section, of the country concerned. A foreign minister who waited until everyone agreed with him would have no foreign policy at all.