I don't think you can tell the objective truth about a person. That's why people write novels.

A busybody's work is never done.

We, while noting many things amiss about Victorian society, more often sense them judging us.

It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another.

I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher.

The death of any man aged 56 is very sad for his widow and family. And no one would deny that Steve Jobs was a brilliant and highly innovative technician, with great business flair and marketing ability.

The really clever people now want to be lawyers or journalists.