Great general causes, in history, are the tinder: chance is the match.
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
I want to visit the future to see how many parodies have entered the history books.
It is the disappearance of slavery in reality that has caused its profusion in metaphor.
The Puritans labored, not to persuade God to elect them — that was decided — but to show the neighbors that He had. Status trumps Grace.
Historical figures are vectors, with magnitude and direction.
Man begins by treating objects as agents; then he grows scientific, and treats agents as objects.
The cure for whoring after the new is to learn how old it is.
The tyrant concerned for his historical reputation must concentrate his fire on the inarticulate, who don’t leave pesky memoirs behind. Kill peasants, not Jews.
History is made top down, civilization bottom up.
To understand the past, treat it like the present; to understand the present, treat it like the past.