Distracted from distraction by distraction

When oxygen and sulphur dioxide are mixed in the presence of a filiament of platinum, they form sulphurous acid. This combination takes place only if the platinum is present; nevertheless the newly formed acid contains no trace of platinum, and the platinum itself is apparently unaffected: has remained inert, neutral, and unchanged. The mind of the poet is the shred of platinum.

Good poets borrow, great poets steal

I hate university towns and university people, who are the same everywhere, with pregnant wives, sprawling children, many books and hideous pictures on the walls ... Oxford is very pretty, but I don't like to be dead.

I suspect that in our loathing of totalitarianism, there is infused a good deal of admiration for its efficiency.

Again I must remind you that a dog's a dog-a cat's a cat.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter