The are of will-making chiefly consists in baffling the importunity of expectation. – William Hazlitt
Mankind are an incorrigible race. Give them but bugbears and idols — it is all that they ask; the distinctions of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, are worse than indifferent to them. – William Hazlitt
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that. – William Hazlitt
I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the Today programme and item four on the news was: The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership. I lay there thinking thats interesting, then I realised it was me. – George Osborne