There Are No Inevitabilities In History

My Grandfather Used To Say, "learn To Like Art, Music And Literature Deeply And Passionately. They Will Be Your Friends When Things Are Bad". It Is True: At This Time Of Year, When Days Are Short And Dark, And One Hardly Dares To Open The Newspapers, I Turn, Not Vainly Either, To The Great Creators Of The Past For Distraction, Solace And Help.

I Very Much Wanted To Be Editor Of The 'new Statesman!' But I Never Wanted To Be Prime Minister, Except Maybe As A Little Boy.

A Deliberate Plan Is Not Always Necessary For The Highest Art; It Emerges.

To Many, Heathrow In August Is A Paradigm Of Hell.

If Anti-semitism Is A Variety Of Racism, It Is A Most Peculiar Variety, With Many Unique Characteristics. In My View As A Historian, It Is So Peculiar That It Deserves To Be Placed In A Quite Different Category. I Would Call It An Intellectual Disease, A Disease Of The Mind, Extremely Infectious And Massively Destructive.