The flame is not out, but it is flickering.

I subscribe to William Faulkner's' view that history is not just about what we were before but who we are now.

It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn.

I have come to the realization that history is not a fixed thing, a collection of precise dates, facts and events (even cogent commencement quotes) that add up to a quantifiable, certain, confidently known, truth. It is a mysterious and malleable thing.

One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes.

The reason why you do history, and particularly why you do war, is that you want to make sure that in the next war, some lessons were learned. There's a saying: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Or Ecclesiastes: "What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again." Human nature always superimposes itself - its strength and its frailty over the rush of chaos of ongoing events - and we can perceive patterns and themes and motifs.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."