In the past, the U.S. has shown its capacity to reinvent its gifts for leadership. During the 1970s, in the aftermath of the Nixon abdication and the Ford and Carter presidencies, the whole nation peered into the abyss, was horrified by what it saw and elected Ronald Reagan as president, which began a national resurgence.

Scanning the newspapers and absorbing with a mixture of incredulity and indignation the enormities they report, I conclude that what England lacks today is, quite simply, sense.

The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.

The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.

Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.

At some time in their careers, most good historians itch to write a history of the world, endeavor to discover what makes humanity the most destructive and creative of species.

As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.