[To a woman whose cellphone rang during a formal meeting:] You'd better answer that. It could be someone important.

We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

[On being criticized for her serious expression:] I simply ache from smiling. Why are women expected to beam all the time? It's unfair. If a man looks solemn, it's automatically assumed he's a serious person, not a miserable one.

Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.

[To the suggestion that Great Britain might someday want a Republic:] We'll go quietly.

In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.

These wretched babies don't come until they are ready.