We are more like our contemporaries than we imagine, and less like our ancestors.
Feb 252013
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
Jan 022013
The historian imagines leaders who move nations by themselves, as the physicist imagines spherical cows of uniform density.
Dec 252012
We call past ages unhappy with no better warrant than supposing that we would have been unhappy in them.
Dec 052012
Every contemporary freethinker would believe in Christianity if born in medieval England, and slavery if born in ancient Rome.
Nov 192012
All agree that memory is fugitive, but few draw the necessary conclusion about identity.
Oct 242012
Our descendants will regard us for hanging men as we regard our ancestors for hanging dogs.
Oct 182012
We owe modern clangor to the unremitting efforts of generations of quiet and sedentary men.
Oct 102012
Mute inglorious Miltons, flowers born to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air, are extinct, and I miss them.