In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.

No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

If I had taken a doctoral degree, it would have stifled any writing capacity.

Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced

When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.

Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.