The main difference between working in an NHS hospital in Britain and a prison is that prison is much safer. - Theodore Dalrymple

If we can sympathise only with the utterly blameless, then we can sympathise with no one, for all of us have contributed to our own misfortunes - it is a consequence of the human condition that we should. But it does nobody any favours to disguise from him the origins of his misfortunes, and pretend that they are all external to him in circumstances in which they are not.

It is surely almost self-evident that the strongest political emotions are negative: for example, the rich are hated much more than the poor are loved.

There is nothing an official hates more than a person who makes up his own mind.