History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and read more

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today.

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair read more

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair and sees the tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once.

Nothing is improbable until it moves into past tense.

Nothing is improbable until it moves into past tense.

No historian can take part with--or against--the forces he has to study. To him even the extinction of the human read more

No historian can take part with--or against--the forces he has to study. To him even the extinction of the human race should merely be a fact to be grouped with other vital statistics.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men read more

There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.

In a few years there will be only five kings in the world -- the King of England and the read more

In a few years there will be only five kings in the world -- the King of England and the four kings in a pack of cards.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions read more

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.