What royal families are very good at doing is surviving and reinventing themselves. That's true whether it's a constitutional monarchy in Britain or an authoritarian monarchy. Robert Lacey More Quotes by Robert Lacey More Quotes From Robert Lacey Of all the varieties of modern pollution, noise is the most insidious. Robert Lacey pollution modern noise There is a convention that the principal heir should be kept away from real danger. As the 'spare' rather than the heir, Harry is expected by the royal family to take the ultimate military risks. Robert Lacey risk real military The Billy Carter of the British monarchy. Robert Lacey british-monarchy carter government I lived in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s. It was, for a Westerner, pretty idyllic. There were the religious police; there were the rules; there were the prayer times. But it was as if we were existing in two separate universes. The Westerners were just allowed to get on with their way of life. Robert Lacey religious prayer two My whole life as a grammar-school boy, getting to Cambridge University and working on the 'London Sunday Times' has been very aspirational. Robert Lacey sunday boys school Saud bin Abd al-Aziz was the moon-faced, shortsighted, bespectacled son of the old founder of Saudi Arabia, who'd always been his father's protege but had never quite lived up to everything that his father had. Robert Lacey moon father son It's true; I'm fascinated by elite groups. Robert Lacey fascinated elites groups Fear generates anger, and fear generates violence, and those were part of what built the Saudi state. Robert Lacey anger-and-fear violence states It is definitely a sign of how seriously King Salman takes the American relationship. Robert Lacey world It seems to me that Sotheby's is very much like the British monarchy: an old and apparently very venerable institution which is in fact very nimble on its feet, an institution invested with a great deal more self-interest than the public image would suggest. Robert Lacey image great me feet