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.

No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.

For belligerent purposes, the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use.

Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced

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

Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence.

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