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

Read. Read every chance you get. Read to keep growing. Read history. Read poetry. Read for pure enjoyment. Read a book called Life on a Little Known Planet. It's about insects. It will make you feel better.

It was an utterly phenomenal achievement.

I would pay to do what I do if I had to.

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.

I'm very aware how many distractions the reader has in life today, how many good reasons there are to put the book down.

You can't love what you don't know much about. You can't convince, stimulate, hold the attention, teach, if you don't know what you're talking about.