Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

God for a month of power & a good shorthand writer.

How fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave.

Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but heroes fight like Greeks.

I have in my life concentrated more on self-expression than self-denial.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures.

The game of life does not proceed like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes they make five, or minus four, and sometimes the blackboard topples over in the middle of the sum and the pedagogue is left with a black eye.