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history is the propaganda of the victors.
He does not know that the ultimate truth is that history ought to consist only of the anecdotes of the little people who are caught up in it.
every man needs an obsession in order to enjoy life, and it was so much the better if that obsession was constructive.
We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other. Am I not right?’
‘Symmetry is only a property of dead things. Did you ever see a tree or a mountain that was symmetrical? It’s fine for buildings, but if you ever see a symmetrical human face, you will have the impression that you ought to think it beautiful, but that in fact you find it cold. The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry,
In those days Great Britain was less wealthy than it is now, but it was also less complacent, and considerably less useless. It had a sense of humanitarian responsibility and a myth of its own importance that was quixotically true and universally accepted merely because it believed in it, and said so in a voice loud enough for foreigners to understand. It had not yet acquired the schoolboy habit of waiting for months for permission from Washington before it clambered out of its post-imperial bed, put on its boots, made a sugary cup of tea, and ventured through the door.
