To this noble end the delegates had pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. It's accelerative. The more we know, the more we want to know.

A leader must look and act the part.

And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.

Love of learning will never let you down. You can have a quest for money, you can have a quest for power, you can have a quest for fame and they are sometimes gratifying and sometimes self-destructive. The love of learning is always gratifying and never self-destructive. The more educated, the more cultivated a society becomes, better off is everybody.

History is about life. It's awful when the life is squeezed out of it and there's no flavor left, no uncertainties, no horsing around. It always disturbed me how many biographers never gave their subjects a chance to eat. You can tell a lot about people by how they eat, what they eat, and what kind of table manners they have.

Find something to do that you love because then the work itself is always the reward not the recompense. And if you love what you're doing you probably do better at it than doing something you don't love and therefore you'll be compensated appropriately.