The mistake you make, don't you see,is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can't put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.

High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

In moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body.

And it is a great thing to die in your own bed, though it is better still to die in your boots.

Winston Churchill could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war.

If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man.

The common people, on the whole, are still living in the world of absolute good and evil from which the intellectuals have long since escaped.