James Tilly Matthews was not a prophet. He was a gifted, perhaps fragile individual who suffered intensely, and for little if any reward.

Haslam leaves us in no doubt what we are supposed to make of Matthews' mental world: this is gibberish and nothing more.

The French revolution, he concluded, had not produced any new principles of truths, merely a mass of examples of how things could go wrong.

If history is written by the victors, conspiracy theory is typically written by the losers, and there were few greater losers in the revolution than the French church and especially the Jesuits.

When a person irrationally and quite pathologically sticks to the creeds of his scriptures too much, it can turn even a great human being into the worst version of himself.

He preferred smart questions to smart answers.

Always acknowledge your daily blessings with a grateful heart, but never dare to be content with them. Your true potential in life is limitless.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determination the way you play it is free will.

Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun's shining or not.

Sometimes you need to put your own characteristics into the actor, and you take different things from the character that you admire - sometimes you can't see the boundaries anymore.

The world of rumor and gossip is like a privileged world with which a social scientist or an anthropologist can take the temperature of popular aspirations.

Malcolm X found the language that communicated across the board, from college professor to floor sweeper, all at the same time, without demeaning the intellect of either.

Never stop flying the airplane.

There is no finer sonic-producing weapon for a guitar slayer than a hand crafter Gibson masterpiece.