My definition of modernism took a while to develop.

The ideas of theologians are refuted by their adversaries, the ideas of scientists are refuted by their followers.

And my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically.

With the passage of years, not all of Dicken's readers remained infatuated with his pathos. One generation's sublimity became another generation's kitsch.

Every historian has informally an anthropology, without ever using the word.

I decided that what I really wanted to do was to make my writing in history deeper, if that's the right word to use. And that is what I did.

Since God is silent, man is his own master; he must live in a disenchanted world, submit everything to criticism, and make his own way.