I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had only one result: I did not do well in examinations

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

Better to dare mighty things and fail than to live in a grey twilight where there is neither victory nor defeat.

Like a sea-beast fished up from the depths, or a diver too suddenly hoisted, my veins threatened to burst from the fall in pressure. I had great anxiety and no means of relieving it ... And then it was that the Muse of Painting came to my rescue - out of charity and out of chivalry ... - and said, "Are these toys any good to you? They amuse some people."

One man with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who have only opinions.

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.