It's easy to get a reputation for wisdom. It's only necessary to live long, speak little and do less.

Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.

I wonder if childhood is ever really happy. Just as well, perhaps. To be blissfully happy so young would leave one always seeking to recapture the unobtainable. Like those people who were always happiest at school or university. Always going back. No reunion ever missed. It always seemed to me rather pathetic.

Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.

A picnic may well be a metaphor for life. The essentials for happiness are the right company, moderate if sanguine expectations and a reasonable standard of physical sustenance and comfort, the whole being bedeviled by the belief that there is always something better to be had if only one presses on.

It's easy to get a reputation for wisdom. It's only necessary to live long, speak little and do less.