Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.

Truth uttered before its time is always dangerous.

Adele Adkins' retro-soul debut '19' was striking less for her songs than for that voice: a voluptuous slightly parched alto that swooped and fluttered like a Dusty Springfield student trying to upstage her teacher or at least update the rules.

So far as I know anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning and if it is it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience.

It was so quiet that morning in Paris that the heels of my two companions and myself were loud on the deserted pavements. It was a city of shuttered shops and barred windows and deserted avenues.

A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning as if supported by the rays of the sun a bird settled on the fire escape joy in the task of coffee joy accompanied me as I walked.

A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered and the smile that lights on the first born babe and assures it of a mother's love.

It is not difficult for me to have this faith for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence - an orderly unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered - 'In the beginning God.'

I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.'

Such is the miraculous nature of the future of exiles: what is first uttered in the impotence of an overheated apartment becomes the fate of nations.