Anecdotes are the gleaming toys of history. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which read more

Anecdotes are the gleaming toys of history. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.

History's like a story in a way: it depends on who's telling it.

History's like a story in a way: it depends on who's telling it.

I cannot be indifferent to the assassination of a member of my profession, We should be obliged to shut up read more

I cannot be indifferent to the assassination of a member of my profession, We should be obliged to shut up business if we, the Kings, were to consider the assassination of Kings as of no consequence at all.

I saw Chungking for the first time more than 40 years ago - a city of hills and mists, of read more

I saw Chungking for the first time more than 40 years ago - a city of hills and mists, of grays and lavenders, two rivers shaping it to a point and the cliff rising above me like a challenge.

Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted
with an eye and a soul.

Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted
with an eye and a soul.

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.

More history is made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills, and proclamations.

More history is made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills, and proclamations.

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause read more

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.

What most impresses us about great jurists is not their tenacious grasps of fine points, honed almost to invisibility; it read more

What most impresses us about great jurists is not their tenacious grasps of fine points, honed almost to invisibility; it is the moment when we are suddently aware of the sweep and direction of the law, and its place in the lives of men.