To be gentle, tolerant, wise and reasonable requires a goodly portion of toughness.

Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.

Marriage is like a three-speed gearbox - affection, friendship, love. It is not advisable to crash your gears and go right through to love straightaway. You need to ease your way through. The basis of love is respect, and that needs to be learned from affection and friendship.

American democracy is the inalienable right to sit on your front porch, in your pyjamas, drinking a can of beer and shouting out 'Where else is this possible?' Which doesn't seem to me to be freedom, really.

The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

To live like a poor man is only fun when you are rich.