Sometimes people damage paintings or sculpture because they love it. They throw their arms around a statue in a fit of hysterical passion and it falls over.

It's funny; in this era of e-mail and voice mail and all those things that even I did not grow up with, a plain old paper letter takes on amazing intimacy.

Sometimes people damage paintings or sculpture because they love it. They throw their arms around a statue in a fit of hysterical passion and it falls over.

...what will we someday do, I always wonder, without the pleasures of turning through books and stumbling on things we never meant to find?

Festina Lente (Hurry in slowly)

As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.

I've always been interested in foreign relations. It's my belief that study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present rather than an escape from it.