The Welsh are the only nation in the world that has produced no graphic or plastic art, no architecture, no drama. They just sing. Sing and blow down wind instruments of plated silver.

He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.

At first it was impressive, but after half and hour deadly monotonous. It was like everything German - overdone.

The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant people are. With anyone over fifty you can be fairly confident what's been taught and what's been left out. But these young people have such an intelligent, knowledgeable surface, and then the crust suddenly breaks and you look down into depths of confusion you didn't know existed.

My children weary me. I can only see them as defective adults: feckless, destructive, frivolous, sensual, humorless.

It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.

I think it's one of the kindest things you can do to the very wicked, to give them time to repent.