War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.

War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.

Dad, I'm in some trouble. There's been an accident and you're going to hear all sorts of things about me read more

Dad, I'm in some trouble. There's been an accident and you're going to hear all sorts of things about me from now on. Terrible things.

And read their history in a nation's eyes.

And read their history in a nation's eyes.

A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a read more

A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because he thinks logically and analytically; or because he is "sensitive;" or because he is cruel. Wealth establishes a man as a hero, and so does poverty. Virtually any circumstance in a man's life will make him a hero to some group of people and has a mythic rendering in the culture -- in literature, art, theater, or the daily newspapers.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed read more

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history.

Tyranny destroys or strengthens the individual; freedom enervates him, until he becomes no more than a puppet. Man has more read more

Tyranny destroys or strengthens the individual; freedom enervates him, until he becomes no more than a puppet. Man has more chances of saving himself by hell than by paradise.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a read more

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will read more

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.