Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

The nastiness of women [in the 14th century] was generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case fading.

To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.

More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life.

Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so.

The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.

What his imagination is to the poet, facts are to the historian. His exercise of judgment comes in their selection, his art in their arrangement.

Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.

One must stop conducting research before one has finished. Otherwise, one will never stop and never finish.

Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interim period, appeasement of Fascism.

Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud.

How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!

In all spheres of life, we find the grace of patient endurance.

So this gargoyle you're looking for, she could imagine herself saying. It wouldn't happen to have freaky magical powers, or the ability to devour human souls, would it?

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

The Indians said the bones were those of a race of people ... three times the size of a man.

After Watergate, which happened when I was in college, I became increasingly inspired by journalism as a way to change the world. It sounds corny, but to wake the public up, to serve a higher cause.

I love sketch comedy. My real goal is to do something with Albert Brooks. That would be my fantasy. I stay up night and day thinking up stuff he might find funny.

Your criticism may be worse than the conduct you are trying to correct.

The universe is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries.