I don't [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every generation is always trying to come to terms with Lincoln.

Who owns history? Everyone and no one--which is why the study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.

Freedom has been privatized - it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That's fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.

A new future requires a new past.

Lincoln sees slavery in some ways as a theft of labor. A slave is a laborer who is being denied the fruits of his labor.

I admire Lincoln enormously and I think what's interesting about Lincoln is how he changes, it's not that he held the same view throughout his life.

Successful teaching rests both on a genuine and selfless concern for students and on the ability to convey to them a love of history.

The importance of an artist is to be measured by the quantity of new signs which he has introduced to the language of art.

I respect faith but doubt is what gets you an education.

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.

We can do nothing ourselves; God must do it. To speak to Him thus is easier by nature for woman than for man because a natural desire lives in her to give herself completely to someone.

True creativity is characterized by a succession of acts each dependent on the one before and suggesting the one after.

We dread the future only when we are not sure we can kill ourselves when we want to.

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.

All that is real in human history becomes irrational in the process of time.

I don't need marriage. I don't need anyone to take care of all my needs and desires. I can take care of them myself now.

Beauty ensnares hearts, captures minds, and stirs up emotional wildfires. From Plato to pinups, images of human beauty have catered to a limitless desire to see and imagine an ideal human form.