What does seem to me poisonous, what breeds a type of patriotism that is pernicious if it lasts but not likely to last long in an educated adult, is the perfectly serious indoctrination of the young in knowably false or biased history - the heroic legend drably disguised as text-book fact. With this creeps in the tacit assumption that other nations have not equally their heroes; perhaps even the belief - surely it is very bad biology - that we can literally 'inherit' tradition.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

I desired dragons with a profound desire.

Grief is like a bomber circling round and dropping its bombs each time the circle brings it overhead; physical pain is like the steady barrage on a trench in World War One, hours if it with no let-up for a moment. Thought is never static pain often is... is it not yet enough?

Courtship is the time for sowing those seeds which will grow up ten years into domestic hatred.

and a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.

If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not.