Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism 'inevitably' caused war; and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.

George VI in the conventional parlance was a Good King who sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. If we are to have monarchs it would be hard to find a better one.

History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.

In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.