Modern composers, if spoken of at all, were referred to as 'freaks', an opinion with which, in some cases, I am still inclined to agree.

These two splendidly lively and intelligent ladies were a real eye-opener for me, for the ordinary and comfortable middle-class Berkshire circles in which I was then living contained no intellectual ladies of any sort. Nobody narrowed their eyes at one and talked about Proust. Tea-table chat did not include a mention of the Russian Ballet designs of Bakst. Modern composers, if spoken of at all, were referred to as 'freaks', an opinion with which, in some cases, I am still inclined to agree.

A. Marshall, Life's rich pageant (1984), 84

There is nothing like a morning funeral for sharpening the appetite for lunch

There is nothing like a morning funeral for sharpening the appetite for lunch ... We had been burying, I am sad to say, my father and I mean no disrespect to the dead when I suggest how greatly preferable the aftermath of a funeral is to that of a wedding.

A. Marshall, Life's rich pageant (1984), 1

The state is the most precious of human possessions

The state is the most precious of human possessions .. and no care can be too great to be spent on enabling it to do its work in the best way

Alfred Marshall (1919), quoted in J. Micklethwait and A. Wooldridge, 'The State of the State' Foreign Affairs 93:4 (2014), 118