It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim.

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

The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational.

I was once naïve enough to ask the late Duke of Devonshire why he liked the town of Eastbourne. He replied with a self-deprecating shrug that one of the things he liked was that he owned it.

Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.

IQ in general has improved since tests first began. Psychologists think that this is because modern life becomes ever more complicated.

I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them.