Quotations

Interviewer: "When you were in the trenches, was there one thing you missed the most?" Robert Graves: "Kippers, since you ask!"






“The insides of most Protestant churches resemble courthouses or town halls, and the focal point of their services is a serious exhortation from a man in a black gown. No golden light, no bells, incense, and candles. No mystery upon an altar or behind an iconostasis. But people brought up in this atmosphere seem to love it. It feels warm and folksy, and leads, on the one hand, to hospitals, prison reform, and votes for all, and, on the other, to sheer genius for drabness, plain cooking ungraced with wine, and constipation of the bright emotions—all of which are considered virtues.

“If I try to set aside the innate prejudices which I feel against this religion, I begin to marvel at the depth of its commitment to earnestness and ugliness.” Alan Watts, Beyond Theology

"The U.S. doesn’t want allies, it wants vassals. Russia cannot accept or exist within such a framework of relations." President Putin in 2015 

"You can be British without speaking English or being Christian or being white, but nevertheless Britain is basically English-speaking, Christian and white, and if one starts to think that it might become basically urdu-speaking and Muslim and brown, one gets frightened and angry." Margaret Thatcher's official biographer Charles Moore in the Spectator, 19 October 1991. I remember I didn't quite like this article at the time.

From Stern, a leading left-of-centre German weekly current affairs magazine. Note that the USA is not a signatory to the ICC and thus has no responsibility to arrest Putin but Germany is a signatory and thus would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu.