It is sometimes wise to allow natural processes to work, and crimes and follies to be paid in coin from their own mint.

I do not admire people who are wise after the event. I would rather be impaled on the other horn of the dilemma and be called one of the "I told you so's."

A fearful game of chess proceeds from check to mate by which the unhappy players seem to be inexorably bound...the fact that the British Empire stands invincible, and that Nazidom is still being resisted, will kindle again the spark of hope in the breasts of hundreds of millions of down-trodden or despairing men and women throughout Europe, and far beyond its bounds, and that from these sparks there will presently come a cleansing and devouring flame.

Hope flies on wings, and international conferences plod afterwards dusty roads.

When you have to hold a hot coffee-pot, it is better not to break the handle off.

But on the whole it is wise in human affairs, and in the government of men, to separate pomp from power.