The Thirty-Nine Steps

by John Buchan

If you're going to be killed you invent some kind of flag and country to fight for, and if you survive you get to love the thing.

you can always get a body in London if you know where to go for it.

'I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal.'

the secret of playing a part was to think yourself into it. You could never keep it up, he said, unless you could manage to convince yourself that you were it.

A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.

'If you are playing a part, you will never keep it up unless you convince yourself that you are it.'