The mind's ability to rationalize it's own shortcomings is unlimited; I am no exception.

A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.

Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily.

Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.

The country and culture commonly known as "America" had had a badly split personality all through its history. Its overt laws were almost always puritanical for a people whose covert behavior tended to be Rabelaisian; its major religions were all Apollonian in varying degrees---its religious revivals were often hysterical in a fashion almost Dionysian.

Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.