Words are seductive and dangerous material, to be used with caution.

The power to command frequently causes failure to think.

The story and study of the past, both recent and distant, will not reveal the future, but it flashes beacon lights along the way and it is a useful nostrum against despair.

Policy is formed by preconceptions, by long implanted biases. When information is relayed to policy-makers, they respond in terms of what is already inside their heads and consequently make policy less to fit the facts than to fit the notions and intentions formed out of the mental baggage that has accumulated in their minds since childhood.

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.

Books are the carriers of civilization... Books are humanity in print.

Rome had Caesar, a man of remarkable governing talents, although it must be said that a ruler who arouses opponents to resort to assassination is probably not as smart as he ought to be.