J.F.C. Fuller

“National armies fight nations, royal armies fight their like; the first obey a mob, always demented, and the second a king, generally sane”. –J.F.C. Fuller

Billy Bennett

“There’s a cockeyed yellow poodle to the north of Conga Pooch; There’s a little hot cross bun that’s turning green; There’s a double-jointed woman doing tricks in Chu-Chin-Chow, And you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din”. –Billy Bennett

Louis Nizer

“I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds”. –Louis Nizer

Richard Crashaw

“Life that dares send A challenge to his end, And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!” — Richard Crashaw

Nahum Tate

“For sorrow is our joy, And joy our greatest sorrow. Elissa dies tonight, And Carthage flames tomorrow”. –Nahum Tate

Frederick Rolfe

“Brisk and prompt to war, soft and not in the least able to resist calamity, fickle in catching at schemes, and always striving after novelties — French characteristics remained unaltered twenty centuries after Julius Caesar made a note of them for all time”. –Frederick Rolfe

Charles Lamb

“Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength”. –Charles Lamb

Ernest Bramah

“A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment”. –Ernest Bramah

Douglas Bader

“Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools”. –Douglas Bader

Charles Dibdin

“For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day”. –Charles Dibdin

William Whewell

“Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation”. –William Whewell

Charles Reade

“The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds they were not worth so much trouble”. –Charles Reade

F.H. Bradley

“The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge”. –F.H. Bradley

Henry Liddon

“The life of man is made up of action and endurance; and life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance”. –Henry Liddon

John Bonham

“Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at”. –John Bonham

Matthew Arnold

“I am a Liberal, yet I am a Liberal tempered by experience, reflexion, and renouncement, and I am, above all, a believer in culture”. –Matthew Arnold

Elizabeth Gaskell

“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues”. –Elizabeth Gaskell

Hugh Kingsmill

“Writers are idolized not because they love their fellow men, which is never a recommendation and in extreme instances leads to crucifixion, but because their self-love is in tune with current fears and desires, and in giving it expression they are speaking for an inarticulate multitude”. –Hugh Kingsmill

Alfred Austin

“Is life worth living? Yes, so long As there is wrong to right”. –Alfred Austin

Edith Cavell

“I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me”. –Edith Cavell

Harold Pinter

“US foreign policy could be defined as follows: kiss my ass or I’ll kick your head in”. –Harold Pinter

Vidkun Quisling

“A Nordic union between Scandinavia and Great Britain, with the adherence of Finland and Holland, and in which Germany and eventually the British Dominions and America might later on be absorbed, would take away the sting of any communist combination and secure European civilization and peace for the foreseeable future”. –Vidkun Quisling

George Saintsbury

“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it”. –George Saintsbury

Stephen Leacock

“I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so”. –Stephen Leacock

James Allen

“He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it”. –James Allen

Friedrich von Hayek

“It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally, I prefer a liberal dictator to a democratic government lacking liberalism”. –Friedrich von Hayek

Mary Shelley

“It is decided as you may have expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape”. –Mary Shelley

Israel Zangwill

“Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan — spoiled”. –Israel Zangwill

Charles Dickens

“The law is an ass”. –Charles Dickens

Oliver Herford

“Many are called but few get up”. –Oliver Herford

Ronald Firbank

“The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain”. –Ronald Firbank

Robert Southey

“Yet leaving here a name, I trust, That will not perish in the dust”. –Robert Southey

Ethan Allen

“It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy”. –Ethan Allen

William Blake

“When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do”. –William Blake

Thomas Carlyle

“Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero”. –Thomas Carlyle

Goldwin Smith

“The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party”. –Goldwin Smith

Syd Barrett

“I think young people should have a lot of fun, but I never seem to have any”. –Syd Barrett

Yasser Arafat

“For whoever stands by a just cause and fights for the freedom and liberation of his land from the invaders, the settlers, and the colonialists cannot possibly be called terrorist, otherwise the American people in their struggle for liberation from the British colonialists would have been terrorists; the European resistance against the Nazis would be terrorism, the struggle of the Asian, African, and Latin American people would also be terrorism…” –Yasser Arafat

J.G. Stedman

“I ever will profess myself the greatest friend to those whose actions best correspond with their doctrine; which, I am sorry to say, is too seldom the case amongst those nations who pretend most to civilization”. –J.G. Stedman

Osbert Sitwell

“Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space”. –Osbert Sitwell

Samuel Smiles

“Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform”. –Samuel Smiles

John Stuart Mill

“A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”. –John Stuart Mill

William Shakespeare

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well”. –William Shakespeare

H.H. Asquith

“It is against British interests that France should be wiped out…” –H.H. Asquith