The written history of the world is largely a history of warfare, because the states within which we live came into existence largely through conquest, civil strife, or struggles for independence.

Good men who exercise power are really the most fascinating of all people.

I think Americans like the practical; they like the human. And I like both those things myself, and I try and put them into my books.

Even a pacifist should admire the military virtues.

The Islam of the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century was a poor thing. Nobody bothered about it. Islam was that funny sort of pure system of beliefs that depressed people in the Middle East held as their religion.

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people.

Nobody should teach anywhere for 25 years, but I did.