We should not judge people by their peak of excellence but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

Even under the best of circumstances the road back from war is difficult.

There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money for instance or war.

However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbours we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account.

There is no morality in war. Morality is the privilege of those judging from the distance. War is only death and destruction.

Circumstances cause us to act the way we do. We should always bear this in mind before judging the actions of others. I realized this from the start during World War II.

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end it has but one thing certain and that is to increase taxes.

There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.

A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.

A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie.