I’m absolute attacking my own instinct for politeness, but I think I admire artists who just speak out or who are strong, so it’s very hard.
People who can change and change again are so much more reliable and happier than those who can’t.
It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do.
I can understand the Greek idea that there are these these principles of lightening or of war or of wisdom and to embody them, to personify them into a Athena or Aries or whichever god you want makes enormous sense.
I think we have all experienced passion that is not in any sense reasonable.
If I were to believe in a god l would believe in gods. I think monotheism is the really ghastly thing. That is the absolutely staggering to me misapprehension.
I have always been an impassioned advocate for the works of Shakespeare. I regard him as one of the most complete miracles of his or any other age.
This is the point. One technology doesn’t replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.
It is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then like most cliches, that cliche is untrue.
Compromise is a stalling between two fools.
I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance.
It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with.
You can’t reason yourself back into cheerfulness any more than you can reason yourself into an extra six inches in height.
Having a great intellect is no path to being happy.
It only takes a room of Americans for the English and Australians to realise how much we have in common.
I suppose that there is no point wasting time being lazy, though of course indolence in a divine way, actually has its advantages.
I don’t need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me.
Old Professors never die, they just lose their faculties.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and you will be happy.
The most important philosophy I think is that even if it isn’t true you must absolutely assume there is no afterlife.