My mother made a brilliant impression upon my childhood life. She shone for me like the evening star.

We would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

There is a good saying to the effect that when a new book appears one should read an old one. As as author I would not recommend too strict an adherence to this saying.

I'm finished ... I'm done. What I want above all things is to take some active part in beating the Germans ... I'd go out to the Front at once.

Logic is a poor guide compared with custom.

There are men in the world who derive an exaltation from the proximity of disaster and ruin, as other from success.