War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

To rush in upon an event before its significance has had time to separate from the surrounding circumstances may be enterprising, but is it useful? ... The recent prevalence of these hot histories on publishers' lists raises the question: Should - or perhaps can - history be written while it is still smoking?

[T]he obverse of facile emotion in the 14th century was a general insensitivity to the spectacle of pain and death.

The conduct of war was so much more interesting than its prevention.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

Completeness is rare in history.

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.