It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

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

By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence - which is a noble thing. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English; I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.

[Much] as war attracts me and fascinates my mind with its tremendous situations, I feel more deeply every year . . . what vile and wicked folly and barbarism it all is.

It would be a great reform in politics if perception could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as foolishness.

Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.

What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes.