Can we ever break free of the devices and desires of our own hearts? Might not our conscience be telling us what we most want to hear?

A letter is paradoxically the most revealing and the most deceptive of confessional revelations. We all have our inconsistencies, prejudices, irrationalities which, although strongly felt at the time, may be transitory. A letter captures the mood of the moment. The transitory becomes immutably fixed, part of the evidence for the prosecution or the defence.

Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all to soon, the very words "justice," "compassion," "society," "struggle," "evil," would be unheard echoes on an empty air.

It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.

Perfect love may cast our fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love.

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.