Grumpy Vegan

One of the things when I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others.

Nelson Mandela, b. 1918, South African President

The committee divided between the theorists, who had done all their thinking long ago, or had had it done for them, and the pragmatists, who hoped to discover what it was they thought in the process of saying it.

Ian McEwan, b. 1948, English novelist writing in The Child in Time

I have more than once pointed out that no organization with “Liberation” in its title has ever, or ever will, liberate anyone or anything.

Bernard Levin, 1928 – 2004, British journalist

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Samuel Johnson, 1709 – 84, English poet, critic and lexicographer

To respond to evil by committing another evil does not eliminate evil but allows it to go on forever.

Vaclav Havel, b. 1936, President of Czechoslovakia