Concerning alchemy it is more difficult to discover the actual state of things, in that the historians who specialise in this field seem sometimes to be under the wrath of God themselves; for, like those who write of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy or on Spanish politics, they seem to become tinctured with the kind of lunacy they set out to describe.
Herbert ButterfieldPerhaps history is a thing that would stop happening if God held His breath, or could be imagined as turning away to think of something else.
Herbert Butterfield[History is] the very servant of the servants of God, the drudge of all the drudges.
Herbert ButterfieldThose people work more wisely who seek to achieve good in their own small corner of the world ... than those who are forever thinking that life is in vain, unless one can. do big things.
Herbert Butterfield