Men killing other men really is an extraordinary phenomenon. Why does it happen? And how long has it gone on? And have the motives changed?

Good men who exercise power are really the most fascinating of all people.

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people.

It's commonly said that people who've been ill in childhood and who've had an upset education never really regret that they do. It means that you don't look at the world in the way that other people do, and if you were inclined to be a writer, that's a help.

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided

I think to be shot in a mountain valley somewhere or other is altogether less glorious than crashing an airliner into a skyscraper.