It is authority that provokes revolution....This occurs when a feeling of impunity takes root among the elite: We are allowed anything, we can do anything. This is a delusion, but it rests on a certain rational foundation. For a while it does indeed look as if they can do whatever they want. Scandal after scandal and illegality after illegality go unpunished. The people remain silent...They are afraid and do not yet feel their own strength. At the same time, they keep a detailed account of the wrongs, which at one particular moment are to be added up. The choice of that moment is the greatest riddle of history. (Shah of Shahs, Vintage International edition, p. 106)

The experience was an exciting one for me. It illustrated that writing was about risk-about risking everything. And that the value of the writing is not in wha…

Even though you can destroy a man, destroying him does not make him cease to exist. On the contrary, if I can put it this way, he begins to exist all the more.…

Whiskey was something which was absolutely marvelous, because there was nothing: no cigarettes, no food. This was a group of highly specialized people. They we…

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.

During the last 100 years, the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common we…