The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith.

What his imagination is to the poet, facts are to the historian. His exercise of judgment comes in their selection, his art in their arrangement.

Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence. It is no fun to write lumpishly, dully, in prose the reader must plod through like wet sand. But it is a pleasure to achieve, if one can, a clear running prose that is simple yet full of surprises. This does not just happen. It requires skill, hard work, a good ear, and continued practice.

Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced

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

Government remains the paramount area of folly because it is there that men seek power over others - only to lose it over themselves.

When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.