Vienna is cold, and dark, and sad. It is laid out as though for a royal parade; the streets are wide and they're flanked by monumental buildings, decorated with the faces of angry gods. And on the roof are statues of national heroes, wielding weapons of destruction.

Europeans have quarrelled since the beginning of time.

Muddled syntax is the outward and audible sign of confused minds, and the misuse of grammar the result of illogical thinking.

The trouble with European cities is that they are drenched in their history, almost all of which is terrible.

The world now seems a stunningly ignoble place. It has not really grown all that much worse but appears to have done so because we know so much more about it than we did.

Politics are not an instrument for effecting social change; they are the art of making the inevitable appear to be a matter of wise human choice.

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'