One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!

I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper.

Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged - well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in - to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.

You want to love everyone equally, and that's worse than impossible--it's wrong.

Be soft, even if you stand to get squashed.