Without history we are the prisoners of the accident of where and when we were born.

From the time I was a little boy I found myself reading history when I had a choice. I read a lot of things, but history had a special appeal for me.

History had its own way of explaining things. The way historians explain things is by telling a story.

We, to some degree, are like what we are because we inherited certain things from the Greeks and the Romans. One of them that's so striking is the whole area of politics.

War has been more common than peace, and extended periods of peace have been rare in a world divided into multiple states

I can see that you [Bruce Cole] are a true historian because you really always ought to ask that question about anybody at a different place or a different time: What's the same and what's different?

You have to liberate yourself first from the prejudices of the world in which you live.

Art is neither a profession nor a hobby. Art is a Way of being.

You may never understand us, so it's natural you don't give a good manner towards us. It's logical.

Life can be real tough ... you can either learn from your problems or keep repeating them over and over.

There's a thread that binds all of us together pull one end of the thread the strain is felt all down the line.

I just invent, then wait until man comes around to needing what I've invented.

I wanted to be a lot of things. There were a million things I wanted to do. I still do. Acting is one of the good ways of doing it you know, because you can be all those things.

I was feeling real good and real manly. Until a real cowboy walked by and told me I had my hat on backwards. So much for my career as a cowboy.

What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion And that which we do with the dead, Is the name of the honestest man in the nation: What more of a man can be said?

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

What we call 'economic growth' is in fact a growth in waste and a decline in the health of natural habitat