Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?

Writing is like the relationship with your bowels. First you can, then you can't. Finally, you must. Only then should you reach for the paper.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case.

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all.