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A country scratching a lazy irritation at sagging doorjambs and late trains, whose greatest attribute is a collective, smelly tolerance, where a chap will put up with almost everything, which means he won't care about anything enough to get out of a chair.A country of public insouciance and private, grubby guilt, where you can believe anything as long as you don't believe it too fervently. A country where the highest aspiration is for a quiet life.
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Television in the 1960s & 70s had just as much dross and the programmes were a lot more tediously patronising than they are now. Memory truncates occasional gems into a glittering skein of brilliance. More television, more channels means more good television and, of course, more bad. The same equation applies to publishing, film and, I expect, sumo wrestling.
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Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others.
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You can't be without passion. Passion means the possessiveness to be the best.
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A man ought never to trust another mans evaluation of a third mans disposition.
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You can't let your personal disposition be dictated by the world around you.
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Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.
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A scholar has to know a little of everything.
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A scholar is committed to building on knowledge that others have gathered, correcting it, confirming it, enlarging it.
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I'm a reporter. I'm not a scholar.
