I do not say that all lawyers are bad, but I do maintain that the general tendency is bad: standing up in a court for whichever side has paid you, affecting warmth and conviction, and doing everything you can to win the case, whatever your private opinion may be, will soon dull any fine sense of honour. The mercenary soldier is not a valued creature, but at least he risks his life, whereas these men merely risk their next fee.

... it has always seemed to me that books are the supreme decorations of a room

I have often observed that extremely violent noise and activity go with good-fellowship and heightened spirits.

I know of few men over 50 that seem to me entirely human, virtually none who has long exercised authority.

The sensation of falling into the past is not unlike that of coming home for the holidays.

Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.

...I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind - it is my own truth alone - but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman. And I have nothing to do with nations, or nationalism. The only feelings I have - for what they are - are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone.