Our American past always speaks to us with two voices: the voice of the past, and the voice of the present. We are always asking two quite different questions. Historians reading the words of John Winthrop usually ask, What did they mean to him? Citizens ask, What do they mean to us? Historians are trained to seek the original meaning; all of us want to know the present meaning.

destruction is easy for humans but creation is too difficult.

In the small town each citizen had done something in his own way to build the community. The town booster had a vision of the future which he tried to fulfill. The suburb dweller by contrast started with the future

Throught human history, illusions of knowledge, not ignorance, have proven to be the principal obstacles to discovery

There is no disinfectant like success.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

The problem for us is less to discover the way it really is than to see the meaning of the way.