Each great upheaval of history that now seems to us inevitable came to nearly everyone who lived through it as a complete surprise.
Nov 282016
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
Nov 242016
Aristocracies die with the disappearance of their duties, not their privileges.
Aug 102016
However many stages history is divided into, ours is always second to last.
Aug 012016
Civilizations expire, unnoticed, in a rabble of compilers, curators, encyclopedists, connoisseurs, aficionados, mashers-up.
Jun 282016
History, in one sense, is a succession of ever-widening protection rackets.
Jun 082016
It defeats the purpose of remembering someone’s name to look pleased with yourself for having done so.
Jun 032016
Futurist, n. Jumped-up presentist; Whig gone wild.
May 242016
It was not so long ago that enthusiasm was regarded as a fatal weakness of character.
Mar 212016
The belief that one is entirely self-created has been possible only in a very few times and places. It is an accident of circumstance.
Mar 162016
For diminishing returns read philosophy; for network effects read history.