Did you know that every two hours the nations of this world spend as much on armaments as they spend on the children of this world every year?

If you're going to be a prisoner of your own mind, the least you can do is make sure it's well furnished.

At my age, I'm often asked if I'm frightened of death and my reply is always, I can't remember being frightened of birth.

And here is the lesson I learned in the army. If you want to do a thing badly, you have to work at it as though you want to do it well.

I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.

Love is an act of endless forgiveness. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.