Happy is the nation without a history.

Happy is the nation without a history.

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a
thousand forests is in one acorn, and read more

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a
thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul,
Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.

Sir Francis Drake circumsized the world with a 100-foot clipper.

Sir Francis Drake circumsized the world with a 100-foot clipper.

The future has a way of arriving unannounced.

The future has a way of arriving unannounced.

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.

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and read more

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today.

Keeping books on social aid is capitalistic nonsense. I just use the money for the poor. I can't stop to read more

Keeping books on social aid is capitalistic nonsense. I just use the money for the poor. I can't stop to count it.

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed read more

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history.

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great read more

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.