Men make history, but they can never know the history they are making.

Even in the best of lives, mistakes are made.

And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval, ask for forgiveness.

To my three sons, Peter, Scott, and Alexander who pulled me from the 18th Century and back into the present on a regular basis and therefore made me a better person, thank you. And to my wife, who sits at the table there. Who is right about almost everything.

Grand visions, even those as prescient as Washington's, must nevertheless negotiate the damnable particularities that history in the short run tosses up before history in the long run arrives to validate the vision.

Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.

[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots