I still occasionally need to struggle but I now fear it less. The weapons I fight it with are also my consolations: books, music, food, wine, nature.

No government can act in advance of the moral will of the people.

We are often more merciful to our animals than we are to each other.

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.

First-class travel, provided one hasn't to pay for it oneself, is the most insidiously addictive of life's luxuries.

Crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe.

Of all the things that human beings did together, the sexual act was the one with the most various of reasons.