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"Die, my dear doctor? That's the last thing I'll do."

At a party, a bored young man once complained that he could not bear fools. "How odd," countered Parker. "Your mother could, apparently."

Asked to use the word 'horticulture' in a sentence she offered
"You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think"

Asked of her opinion of a certain woman, she breathed, feigning admiration "You know, she speaks eighteen languages - and can't say 'no' in any of them."

Colliding with a young lady in a doorway, the latter stood aside saying "Age before beauty." "Pearls before swine," riposted Parker, gliding through.

A friend was trying to get rid of his cat. "Have you tried curiosity?" suggested Parker.

A friend had just given birth. She telegrammed "Many congratulations. We knew you had it in you."

Hearing that President Coleridge, a man of few words and less action, was dead she inquired, "How can they tell?"

The editor of her first newspaper, where money was tight, asked her why she hadn't written a particular piece she replied, "Someone else was using the pencil."

She once remarked that the two most marvellous words in the English language were "cheque enclosed."

"Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." [Parkinson's Law] Derived from a 1950s study on the Royal Navy

"A perfection of planned layout is achieved only by organisations on the point of collapse .. during a period of exciting discovery or progress there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters."

Cyril Northcote Parkinson

"Don't delay. The best is the enemy of the good. By this I mean that a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week. War is a very simple thing, and the determining characteristics are self confidence, speed and audacity. None of these things can be done perfectly, but all can be done good."

"Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets."

"The typical staff officer is a man past middle life, spare, wrinkled, intelligent, cold, noncommittal, with eyes like a codfish, polite in contact, but at the same time unresponsive, cool, calm and as damnably composed as a concrete post or plaster of Paris cast; a human petrification with a heart of feldspar and without charm or the friendly germ; minus bowels, passions or a sense of humor. Happily they never reproduce and all of them finally go to hell."

"A piece of spaghetti, like a military unit, must be lead from the front."

"Courage is fear holding on a minute longer."

Gen George S Patton

"Wer den kleinsten Teil seines Geheimnisses hingibt, hat den anderen nicht mehr in der Gewalt."

"Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference." [author]

"How can the ability to lead depend on the ability to follow? You might as well say that the ability to float depends on the ability to sink."

L.J. Peter and R. Hull, The Peter Principle

"I'm one of those stupid bums who didn't go to university and a fat lot of harm it did me."

The force [he] was joining had never been an ordinary police force. It had been born out of the Irish conflict in 1921: after the partition of the island, it had been specially set up to defend Northern Ireland against IRA attacks. This meant that it was as much a paramilitary force, armed and equipped like an army, as a police force. p. 35.
After a government enquiry [after riots caused fatalities and the Army was sent to intervene] the RUC, traditionally dominated by Protestants, had been disarmed, and its militia, the B-Specials - perceived as a sectarian force and feared by Catholics - had been abolished. p. 35.

North Belfast is one of the most dangerous areas in Northern Ireland. Approximately one-fifth of all the murders than have occurred since 1969 have taken place within this cluster of Catholic and Protestant districts. Unlike the west of the city, the boundaries between the two communities are not clearly marked in the north. p. 59.

Between 1986 and 1987 PIRA had received three huge shipments of weapons from Libya, amounting to some 120 tonnes. These Libyan supplies were a direct result of American bombing of Tripoli using F1-11 aircraft based in England. A fourth shipment, comprising 150 tonnes, was seized by French authorities on 1 November 1987. (Libya had originally approached the more left-wing INLA .. but it did not appear to have the resources to absorb the amount of weapons that was on offer). p. 133.

Ian's greatest qualities were
 courage to make decisions that needed to be made
 to delegate authority when required
 to keep up morale in his unit with his wit and humour
 to understand his men's needs
 and to listen - to admit he didn't know it all.
He was able to mix and relax with his men when times were quiet, yet he never became too familiar - he was still the boss. After every operation he was there to thank and congratulate the men involved. p. 153.

Special Branch officer 1988: None of these operations were set up with a deliberate aim of killing anyone, but because of the firepower in the hands of the terrorists and their willingness to use it their deaths were unavoidable. p. 164.

October 1993: Four of the seven members of PIRA's Army Council also held high positions in the political party. Police intelligence identified them as Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president; Pat Doherty, a Sinn Fein vice-president; the veteran Joe Cahill, who had been in the IRA for most of his life; and Martin McGuinness. The other three Army Council members were PIRA Chief of Staff (since 1987) Kevin McKenna, his adjutant, Micky KcKevitt and Thomas 'Slab' Murphy. By late 1995 Adams and McGuinness were no longer members of the Army Council. pp. 205-6.

A GI told him he didn't like modern paintings because they were unrealistic, then went on to show him a snapshot of his girlfriend. "My, is she really that small?" asked Picasso.

Asked why he had none of his own paintings on his walls he replied "I can't afford them."

During the war, an inquisitive Gestapo officer visiting Picasso's flat noticed a photograph of the famous 'Guernica' lying on a table. "Did you do that?" demanded the German. "No, you did," said Picasso.

Picasso went to see his local cabinetmaker for a new wardrobe and drew a quick sketch of what he wanted. He gave this to the cabinetmaker and asked how much it would cost. "Nothing at all," replied the craftsman. "Just sign the sketch."

"What does this picture represent?" "Two hundred thousand dollars."

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.

Plutarch

"Ich glaube an das Gute im Menschen, ich verlasse mich aber lieber auf das Schlechte in ihm."

 "And keep good humour still, whate’er we lose:" (The Rape of Lock)

"The peoples of Europe will either die together or save themselves together." 13.01.1992

"If we lack freedom, it is because we submit to falsehood; it's because we don't expose it every day."

Father Jerzy Popieluszko

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

General Colin Powell

 "Inflation ist, wenn alle zu wenig Geld haben, weil jeder zuviel davon hat."

 "[The English comedy of character is] the richest and wisest kind of humour, sweetening and mellowing life for us .. tender mockery .. we laugh at those we love because we have come to know them so well that certain traits or habits as familiar to us as their faces, seem peculiarly absurd." English Humour, 1930.

 "Another victory like that and we are lost !"