Of Virginia Woolf: The talent of this generation which is most certain of survival.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretence that pain is the proper price of any good thing.

All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.

Margaret Thatcher has one great advantage - she is a daughter of the people and looks trim, as the daughter of the people desire to be. Shirley Williams has such an advantage over her because she's a member of the upper-middle class and can achieve the kitchen-sink revolutionary look that one cannot get unless one has been to a really good school.

There is, of course, no reason for the existence of the male sex except that one sometimes needs help with moving the piano.

History sometimes acts as madly as heredity, and her most unpredictable performances are often her most glorious.