Written history is mostly war, and the surest way to be remembered is to start one.
Dec 072018
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
Dec 032018
Whiggism implies boundless optimism about the future, and, less often noted, boundless contempt for the past.
Oct 312018
We say of posthumously venerated figures that they waited generations or centuries to receive their due. It does not occur to us that they may have deserved their earlier neglect, and that it is we who have been taken in.
Oct 052018
High civilizations are lost not in battle but by forfeit.
Sep 132018
The people who believe in Whig history have never read a page of it.
Aug 202018
The philosopher, who needs to remember what he knows, forgets; and the historian, who needs to forget, remembers.
Aug 102018
Ideologies overtly hostile to civilization are among its less fortunate byproducts.
Jul 252018
To imagine not knowing what we know is the indispensable habit of the historian; its opposite is easier to master.
Jun 252018
One wonders what people who oppose eugenics think history is.
May 162018
The past is rarely given voice, except to pronounce in favor of present fashion.