I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.

Above all, the ability to feel the force of an argument apart from the substance it deals with is the strongest weapon against prejudice.

Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.

The book, like the bicycle, is a perfect form.

We may complain and cavil at the anarchy which is the amateurs natural element, but in soberness we must agree that if the amateur did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.

The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.