Beneath the broad tides of human history there flow the stealthy undercurrents of the secret societies, which frequently determine in the depth the changes that take place upon the surface.

No, I can tell you one of the first things that happens to a home secretary when they arrive in the job is that they are given a briefing about the security matters that they will be dealing with and I deal with security matters on a daily basis

Brainy folks were also present in Lyndon Johnson’s administration, especially in the Pentagon, where Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s brilliant ‘whiz kids’ tried to micro-manage the Vietnam war, with disastrous results

Utopia is a mixture of childish rationalism and secularized angelism.

Wisdom disguises our wounds; it teaches us how to bleed in secret.

I’m a writer. I could not or would not ever run a business. I don’t even have a secretary. And contrary to some of the stereotypes, entrepreneurs are not loners. I am.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.