Was this an old disease, and, if so, which one? If it was new, what did that say about the state of medical knowledge? And in any case, how could physicians make sense of it?

Medical research in the twentieth century mostly takes place in the lab; in the Renaissance, though, researchers went first and foremost to the library to see what the ancients had said.

Perhaps more than any other disease before or since, syphilis in early modern Europe provoked the kind of widespread moral panic that AIDS revived when it struck America in the 1980s.

Even more than this, however, the sick - like lepers - were often reviled because people believed that they had brought their torments upon themselves.

A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably.

The energy of life is force of faith.

Almost alone among successful politicians, he took slights personally.

To be a leader, you have to lead yourself first.

Every time, he breaks your hearts. And every time, he expects me to pick up the pieces.

We accept the love we think we deserve. please help me to recognize the truth about myself,no matter how beautiful it is.

It's by your own actions you're able to get more in a mess or out of one. It's your own actions that relieve or bind you.

The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.

Anybody can quit. Only a real champion and a person of character and strength can keep going and refuse to give up.

I don't do a television show for awards. You make it so people will enjoy watching it.