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In life no such colour brightened the grey picture of a man devoted to the daily study of warfare on several continents with all the ardour of a certified public accountant.

— Alistair Cooke

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Notes from Wikiquote

In: Letter from America, 1946-2004 (2007).

More quotes by Alistair Cooke

Moving among wretched people in mean places, as I often saw him do, he had the impulses of a saint but not the serenity.

Six Men (1977)

He was at his best only when the going was good.

Six Men (1977)

Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.

All Presidents start out pretending to run a crusade but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely, the presidency.

Talk About America (1968)

He measured all his fellow workers by the test of professionalism, and a professional is a man who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.

Six Men (1977)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alistair Cooke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.