... the English think of an opinion as something which a decent person, if he has the misfortune to have one, does all he can to hide.

Life itself, however, flows and is sequential and punishes those who try to compartmentalize it. Thus if, for any reason whatsoever, moral standards are conspicuously and unprecedentedly breached in one area of society, such as the political, it will follow as the night the day that those standards will start collapsing all down the line-in sports, entertainment, education, the armed forces, business and government.

From a purely tourist standpoint, Oxford is overpowering, being so replete with architecture and history and anecdote that the visitor's mind feels dribbling and helpless, as with an over-large mouthful of nougat.

when I spoke of having a drink, it was a euphemism for having a whole flock of them.

The business society is interested in training its citizens to make money, and, in this objective, it is often successful. Many of them do make money, and the ones who do not obligingly regard themselves as failures who have wasted the precious gift of life.

Englishwomen's shoes look as if they had been made by someone who had often heard shoes described, but had never seen any.

The attitude of the English towards English history reminds one a good deal of the attitude of a Hollywood director towards love.