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?

The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources, the whole vast challenge of a continent waiting to be exploited, combined to produce a prevailing materialism and an American drive bent as much, if not more, on money, property, and power than was true of the Old World from which we had fled.

Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French.

For me, the card catalog has been a companion all my working life. To leave it is like leaving the house one was brought up in.

To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions.

The better part of valor is to spend it learning to live with differences, however hostile, unless and until we can find another planet.

To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.