A gambler is nothing but a man who makes his living out of hope. – William Bolitho
General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming. – William Bolitho
Only the poet has any right to be sorry for the poor, if he has anything to spare when he has thought of the dull, commonplace rich. – William Bolitho
The shortest way out of Manchester is notoriously a bottle of Gordons gin; out of any businessmans life there is the mirage of Paris; out of Paris, or mediocrity of talent and imagination, there are all the drugs, from subtle, all-conquering opium to cheating, cozening cocaine. – William Bolitho
It is only when you watch the dense mass of thousands of ants, crowded together around the Hill, blackening the ground, that you begin to see the whole beast, and now you observe it thinking, planning, calculating. It is an intelligence, a kind of live computer, with crawling bits for its wits. – Lewis Thomas