History was a series of decisions about what to tell and a series of accidents about what survived after telling. Not truth, but a historian could search for truth, and the search was as worthy as any other human activity.

Anytime you're afraid to try something new...just remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the titanic.

The use of force is always an answer to problems...[It] isn't an attractive answer, though.

Nothing’s boring if it’s in your soul…

The most important thing of all was not the poverty of its ess