When I first came to the United States in 1956 I fell in love with things – mainly the vitality and the freedoms.

John Wood stood in front of them, and held his revolver, and threatened to shoot the first man who bayoneted these Germans who had surrendered.

An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.

There is no such thing as darkness; only a failure to see.

Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.

It was announced as a French victory by the French Minister of War. I did not see any sign of victory but only the retreat of the French forces engaged in the battle.

History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that.

The cheery optimism of our generals always thought we were going forward, and therefore it was not worth while making ourselves comfortable and safe.

Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.

One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we’ve developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they...

If I can bicycle, I bicycle.

A friend in the War Office warned me that I was in Kitchener’s black books, and that orders had been given for my arrest next time I appeared in France.

One always feels that not only should each speaking occasion require a new speech but also for everybody’s sake including my own, a new past.

Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.

The spirit of the fighting men, and the driving power behind the armies, depended upon the support of the whole people and their continuing loyalties.

I’ve been to Nepal, but I’d like to go to Tibet. It must be a wonderful place to go. I don’t think there’s anything there, but it would be a nice place to visit.

It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.

Well, I’m having a good time. Which makes me feel guilty too. How very English.

But do you know, I shall not be sorry to die. I shall be glad, Monsieur. And why glad, you ask? Because I love France and hate the Germans who have put this war on...

Among the barbarians as well is the People’s Republic of China with a gulag all of its own – far, far more sophisticated than the Russians.

Travel, of course, narrows the mind.

This war will be the last war. It is a war of justice against injustice. When they have finished this time the people will have no more of it.

Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.

I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus.

The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth.

But the worst handicap we had the prohibition of naming individual units who had done the fighting.

But to be frank and I think probably to the relief of many of you, I am withdrawing from the speaking circuit. It has caught up with me.

The trouble with kingdoms of heaven on earth is that they’re liable to come to pass, and then their fraudulence is apparent for all to see. We need a kingdom of heaven in Heaven, if...

We who go out to die shall be remembered, because we gave the world peace. That will be our reward, though we will know nothing of it, but lie rotting in the earth – dead.

I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.

Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.

In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.

During the early months of the war in 1914 there was a conflict of opinion between the War Office and the Foreign Office regarding news from the Front.

We listened to the slogans of the barbarians – and this is the core of the problem – we decided that what the Marxists were saying had a point.

He was not only a bore; he bored for England.

When we got down from the ambulances there were sharp cracks about us as bursts of shrapnel splashed down upon the Town Hall square. Dead soldiers lay outside and I glanced at them coldly. We...

Television of course actually started in Britain in 1936, and it was a monopoly, and there was only one broadcaster and it operated on a license which is not the same as a government grant.

Good taste and humour are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem. We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.

From each one of them rose separate columns of smoke, meeting in a pall overhead, and through the smoke came stabbing flashes of fire as German shells burst with thudding shocks of sound. This was...

The Chinese understand that slave labour, which they thrive on, is not productive or useful to the economy if it is only extracted by torture.

St. Teresa of Avila described our life in this world as like a night at a second-class hotel.

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.

Sex is the mysticism of materialism and the only possible religion in a materialistic society.

Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.

I am going to fight – I, a socialist and Syndicalist – so that we shall make an end to war, so that the little ones of France will sleep in peace, and the women...

I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home.

Surely the glory of journalism is its transience.

Crying wolf is a real danger.

An orgy looks particularly alluring seen through the mists of righteous indignation.