Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own.

Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future.

The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.

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

If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?

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

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.