Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the other curses of a refined nature. Above all, it should never ask for leave where there is a right of way.

The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.

There is much good luck in the world, but it is luck. We are none of us safe. We are children, playing or quarrelling on the line.

We move between two darknesses.

Italy and London are the only places where I don't feel to exist on sufferance.

Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?

I am so used to seeing the sort of play which deals with one man and two women. They do not leave me with the feeling I have made a full theatrical meal they do not give me the experience of the multiplicity of life.