“Things are getting worse faster than I can lower my standards.”

“But there are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse”

“Guilt and no guilt: these were the worst things. The only thing worse than the guilt was the fear of getting caught.”

“I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?”

“She thought that things could not get worse . . . but they always can, and often do.”

“When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse.”

“By forbearing to march behind the yin-yang flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the South Korean athletes are making a bigger sacrifice than the North Koreans, in whose iconography the banner of the DPRK ranks lower than the party standard, which in turn ranks much lower than the Supreme Commander's standard, the flag of the personality cult.”

“We are spending 6 per cent more than we are earning... You can also bankrupt a nation by excessive wage demands... That is why I said that it is better to have a lower standard of life for all workers than for some of them to be unemployed.”

“The point that I made in the article is that if any of us lapse sometimes from standards that we uphold, that is human. The thing to do is not necessarily then to say that the standards should be lowered. It should be to reflect on the lapse and to seek to do better in the future.”

“Things get worse before they get better.”