I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course.

Personally I am in favour of education but a university is not the place for it.

There is no one so radical as a man-servant whose freedom of the champagne bin has been interfered with.

I write out of my intellectual experience.

Chater: You dare to call me that. I demand satisfaction! Septimus: Mrs Chater demanded satisfaction and now you are demanding satisfaction. I cannot spend my time day and night satisfying the demands of the Chater family.

The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say.

The hard part is getting to the top of page 1.