Bertrand Russell

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

I grew up under Thatcher. I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless. Then gradually over the years it occurred to me that this was actually a very convenient myth for the state.

The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.