America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual intervention read more

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual intervention of civilization.

Ireland's ruins are historic emotions surrendered to time.

Ireland's ruins are historic emotions surrendered to time.

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will read more

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.

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.

What is amusing now had to be taken in desperate earnest once.

What is amusing now had to be taken in desperate earnest once.

Men after death are understood worse than men of the present, but heard better.

Men after death are understood worse than men of the present, but heard better.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

All history . . . is an inarticulate Bible.

All history . . . is an inarticulate Bible.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons read more

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that History has to teach.