“It was a soft breathless June morning, with a promise of sultriness later...”

“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”

“Jock put his shoulder to the framework and the whole thing crumbled inward with a crash of glass. "Rotten as touch-wood," he said. "This place would never stand a siege.”

“How will you deal with him?" Belses asked.Jock lifted a brawny fist and regarded it lovingly. "Knock him out-- truss him up-- whatever the Almighty permits us."Supposing he's not alone?"Oh, then, if his trusties are with him, there'll be a bonny rumpus.”

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”

“I get into a tearing passion about something I know very little about, and when I learn more my passion ebbs away.”

“It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.”