Nature abhors a lot of things, including vacuums, ships called the Marie Celeste, and the chuck keys for electric drills.

- I notice you didn't laugh, Mr. Black! - No, Your Majesty. We are forbidden to laugh at the things kings say, sire, because otherwise we would be at it all day.

It is a mistake trying to cheer up camels. You may as well drop meringues into a black hole.

I know loads of coppers and dealt with them a lot when I was a journalist - coppers are easy to write for; they tend to run on rails.

Now that their long war was over, they could get on with the proper concern of all civilised nations, which is to prepare for the next one.

It's going to look pretty good, then, isn't it," said War testily, "the One Horseman and Three Pedestrians of the Apocalypse.

The key to winning, as always, was looking as if you had every right, nay, duty to be where you were. It helped if you could also suggest in every line of your body that no one else had any rights to be doing anything, anywhere, whatsoever.