The poem . . . is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life.

More and more Emerson recedes grandly into history, as the future he predicted becomes a past.

I reckon I am a smart aleck, but it is just a way to pass the time.

The poem . . . is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life.

You have to make the good out of the bad because that is all you have got to make it out of.

Reality is not a function of the event as event, but of the relationship of that event to past, and future, events.

And all times are one time, and all those dead in the past never lived before our definition gives them life, and out of the shadow their eyes implore us. That is what all of us historical researchers believe. And we love truth.