The minstrel was known as Roland le Fartere and that the trick was to make a leap, a whistle and a fart

Henry II, in the twelfth century, had been so fond of the favourite party trick of one of his minstrels that he gave him a thirty-acre estate in Suffolk, on the sole condition that he and his heirs repeated it in the royal presence every Christmas. When one learns that the minstrel was known as Roland le Fartere and that the trick was to make a leap, a whistle and a fart, one can understand why his descendants had alienated the estate by the 1330s.

J. Barker Agincourt (2005), 139

For they are necessary to have above all else, especially money

First of all, he [the wise prince] will consider how much strength he has or can obtain, how many men are available and how much money. For unless he is well supplied with those two basic elements, it is folly to wage war, for they are necessary to have above all else, especially money.

Christine de Pizan, cited in J. Barker, Agincourt (2005), 103

The only product of the forces of evolution capable of understandingits own origins

He remembered a time at Bart's, holding a human brain in his hands for the first time, being amazed by the weight of it. This blown eggshell had contained the only product of the forces of evolution capable of understanding its own origins.

P. Barker, The ghost road (1995), 238

Cynical in the thorough-going way of those who have not so farencountered much to be cynical about

Potts  had been a science student at Manchester University, bright, articulate, cynical in the thorough-going way of those who have not so far encountered much to be cynical about. The war, he insisted loudly, flushed with wine, was feathering the nests of profiteers. It was being fought to safeguard access to the oil wells of Mesopotamia. It had nothing, absoluely nothing, to do with Belgian neutrality, the rights of small nations or anything like that. And if Hallet thought it had, then Hallet was a naive idiot. Hallet came from an old army family and had been well and expensively educated to think as little as possible; confronted by Potts, he floundered, but then quickly began to formulate beliefs he had hitherto believed everybody shared.

P. Barker, The ghost road (1995), 143