Growing up in the English countryside seemed an interminable process. Freezing winter gave way to frosty spring, which in turn merged into chilly summer-but nothing ever, ever happened.

It is somehow reassuring to discover that the word travel is derived from travail, denoting the pains of childbirth.

Picking other people's brains is an art worth cultivating.

I discovered that Human Nature was not, as I had always supposed, a fixed and unalterable entity, that wars are not caused by a natural urge in men to fight, that ownership of land and factories is not necessarily the natural reward of greater wisdom and energy.

Enemies are, to me, as important as friends in my life, and when they die I mourn their passing.

lifelong enemies are, I think, as hard to make and as important to one's well-being as lifelong friends.

Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening.