A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a read more

A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because he thinks logically and analytically; or because he is "sensitive;" or because he is cruel. Wealth establishes a man as a hero, and so does poverty. Virtually any circumstance in a man's life will make him a hero to some group of people and has a mythic rendering in the culture -- in literature, art, theater, or the daily newspapers.

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

All history is but the lengthened shadow of a great man.

All history is but the lengthened shadow of a great man.

History is the great dust-heap... a pageant and not a philosophy.

History is the great dust-heap... a pageant and not a philosophy.

Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own fortune, and he inherits read more

Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own fortune, and he inherits his own past.

The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.

The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined read more

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

The construction of Europe is an art. It is the art of the possible.

The construction of Europe is an art. It is the art of the possible.