American is the first democratic nation-state.

I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam.

The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.

Winning the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history, the sine qua non of our forward progress.

Crazy Horse saw history as integrated in the present, incorporated into daily life.

The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.

Eisenhower had the clearest blue eyes. He would fix them on you. In my every interview with him, he would lock his eyes on to mine and keep them there.

Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.

It is through history that we learn who we are and how we got that way, why and how we changed, why the good sometimes prevailed and sometimes did not.

My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.

Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening.

Now when I bore people at a party they think it's their fault.

If we can refrain from harming others in our actions & words, we can start to give serious attention to actively doing good.

I saw Eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless light, All calm as it was bright.

Yes, creation is moving toward us; life is moving toward us all the time. We back away, but it keeps pushing toward us. Why not step forward and greet it.

When you have characters talking about music in any way, especially about music someone doesn't know, some people presume it's about showing social capital and sneering at those who don't have it.

And I realize how useless wails are and how gratuitous melancholy is.

Black art has always existed. It just hasn't been looked for in the right places.

How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?

The U.N. is asking Italy to oversee this effort. And if a government is formed, you're likely to see up to 5,000 Italian troops maybe go in to provide security and also train a Libyan army.