Patriotism has become a mere national self assertion, a sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties.

A biography should be a dissection and demonstration of how a particular human being was made and worked.

I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard it ceases to be anything more than 'the gang in possession,' and its days are numbered.

War is a curtain of dense black fabric across all the hopes and kindliness of mankind. Yet always it has let through some gleams of light, and not--I am not dreaming--it grows threadbare, and here and there and at a thousand points the light is breaking through.

It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.

Democracy's ceremonial, its feast, it's great function, is the election.