“We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.”

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

“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.”

“Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try.”

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

“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.”

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