“There's no such thing as gratitude in politics.”

“There's only things, Blackie.”

“That was the difference, he had always known, between his faith and theirs, the political leaders of the people who cared only for things like the state, the republic: this child was more important than a whole continent.”

“There's nothing so heavy as books, sir--unless it's bricks.”

“There's nothing discreditable about jealousy, Mr Bendrix. I always salute it as the mark of true love.”

“In five hundred years' time, to the historian writing the Decline and Fall of the British Empire, this little episode would not exist. There will be plenty of other causes. You and me and poor Jones will not even figure in a footnote. It will be all economics, politics, battles.”

“If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there's something to admire.”