Eventually one wearies of strangling the last king with the guts of the last priest.
Dec 172013
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
Dec 092013
Yesterday the great enemy of democracy was distinction of birth; today it is distinction of wealth; tomorrow it will be distinction.
Dec 042013
Uncivilized colonists enslave the natives; civilized colonists exterminate them.
Nov 262013
Every historical atrocity has been committed in the name of some high principle.
Nov 072013
Those who know history are condemned to tell those who do not what part of it we are now repeating.
Nov 052013
Political corruption used to be friction; now it is lubrication.
Oct 172013
Etiquette and ritual are observed long after traditions and religions have died, as fingernails seem to still grow on a corpse.
Oct 142013
History, n. The events leading up to my birth.
Biography, n. The events leading up to my death.
Aug 052013
All people at all times have annals; but only some at a few times have history.
Jun 122013
The past, like a mirror, is best gazed into from a middle distance; you can see nothing close up or far away.