We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.

It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.

Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was like a sick house and there was no rhyme or reason in it), he saw a long procession, deformed in body, warped in mind, some with illness of the flesh, weak hearts or weak lungs, and some with illness of the spirit, languor of will, or craving for liquor. At that moment he felt a holy compassion for them all. …The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.

Clearly much that seemed valid seemed so only because he had been taught it from earliest youth.