The Navy's a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, 'Frightfully sorry, old chap.'

Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western World. Simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.

He lost himself in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them. Frowning, he tried again.

While I am on, I can discipline myself to that extent. When I am off, I can't discipline myself at all. On the other hand, when I am off, there are so many things I like doing, it doesn't really matter.

For a small island [Great Britain], the place is remarkably diverse.

What a man does defiles him, not what is done by others.

I'm not a critic so much of my own writing. People must make up their own minds over that.