Plays...Maidens aspiring to Godheads and vice versa!
People think there's a choice between smoking and immortality, but we've all got to die of something.
I don't think Stoppardian has a precise definition.
You can persuade a man to believe almost anything provided he is clever enough, but it is much more difficult to persuade someone less clever.
Of all forms of fiction, autobiography is the most gratuitous.
Wars are fought for oil wells and coaling stations; for control of the Dardanelles or the Suez Canal; for colonial pickings to buy cheap in and conquered markets to sell dear in. War is capitalism with the gloves off.