Everything trends towards catastrophe & collapse. I am interested, geared up & happy. Is it not horrible to be built like that?

I'd rather spend half an hour in the company of a top carpenter, than three hours in the company of an average brain surgeon

The English know how to make the best of things. Their so-called muddling through is simply skill at dealing with the inevitable.

Immense deposits of kimmeridge clay, containing the oil-bearing bands or seams, stretch across England from Dorsetshire to Lincolnshire. [An early political recognition of the native resource. The Geological Survey had identified the inflammable oil shale in reports since at least 1888.]

I built with my own hands ... a large swimming-pool which was filtered to limpidity and could be heated to supplement our fickle sunshine.

There are two kinds of success-initial and ultimate.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.