Hunting can't be justified ... yet they are all good things

in July 1997 he [Runciman] fell into conversation with James Lees-Milne on the subject of the recently elected New Labour administration: 'We  agreed that  hunting can't be justified, any more than hereditary peers, or for that matter religion - yet they are all good things.'

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 416, footnote

I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough

'I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough.' However, by the post-war period, Cambridge was beginning to develop a reputation - unfortunate in Steven's view - for narrower professionalism. Trevor-Roper diagnosed the same disease at Oxford, and was determined to lead the alliance that would purge it.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 365

'Can you write the King's English?' ... 'That is almost my only qualification.'

Almost all the history dons had served in at least one of the world wars, whether as soldiers or spies. For some, like Karl Leyser, the senior history tutor at Magdalen, a German-born internee turned naturalized British war hero, soldiering had, perforce, preceded the academic life. Others, like the Christ Church stalwart, Provost of Worcester and ubiquitous fixer J.C. Masterman, had surprised the establishment of military intelligence with the usefulness of their hitherto donnish talents, 'Can you write the King's English?' an SIS superior of Masterman's once demanded. 'That,' J.C. replied mildly, 'is almost my only qualification.'

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 364

He had fewer acquaintances to offend there

It is said that Lawrence Durrell set his Quartet in Alexandria, rather than Athens, only because he had fewer acquaintances to offend there. Nonetheless, from its raffish founder's day on, the city had possessed a certain reputation.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 295

Fault lay with the Czech nation for having the carelessness to lose most of its aristocracy following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620

It could, of course, be argued that that fault lay with the Czech nation for having the carelessness to lose most of its aristocracy following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and that a British peer [Viscount Doxford], wishing to associate with his social equals, had little choice  but to seek the only suitable company available, which happened to be German

Vrsny, quoted in M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 256

The section on Steven Runciman's father's doomed mission regarding the Sudetenland is depressing. This acerbic summary is I believe unfair, but nonetheless brilliant.

His appointment of James Lees-Milne as his secretary in 1931 much to confirm

Peterson shared the assumption of most of the Foreign Service that Lord Lloyd was homosexual, an assumption that Lloyd's marriage to Blanche Lascalles in 1911 did little to shift and his appointment of James Lees-Milne as his secretary in 1931 much to confirm.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 247

The firmly Liberal Runcimans had entrusted the education of their children to one of the last seventeenth century Tories in Britain

Torby's [Runciman's governess] interests were academic though not dry, her instincts artistic but not fanciful. She treated her adopted Episcopalian religion in a spirit of hereditary romance; her politics, accordingly, were entirely traditional. The firmly Liberal Runcimans had entrusted the education of their children to one of the last seventeenth century Tories in Britain.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 4-5