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.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever read more

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.

We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.

The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides
appears to assert when he says history is philosophy read more

The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides
appears to assert when he says history is philosophy learned from
examples.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

What most impresses us about great jurists is not their tenacious grasps of fine points, honed almost to invisibility; it read more

What most impresses us about great jurists is not their tenacious grasps of fine points, honed almost to invisibility; it is the moment when we are suddently aware of the sweep and direction of the law, and its place in the lives of men.

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

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

The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.

The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.