Monuments! what are they? the very pyramids have forgotten their builders, or to whom they were dedicated. Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great.

The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the Netherlands.

A third force, developing itself more slowly, becomes even more potent than the rest: the power of gold.

In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves.

The crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs.

A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Pagan empires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period.

Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty.

A good lawyer is a bad Christian.

To the Calvinists, more than to any other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England, and America are due.

Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience.

Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessities.

Part of the artist's job is to make the commonplace singular, to project a different interpretation onto the conventional.

Perhaps he found it strange being accompanied by a Chinese-Nigerian arms trafficking pirate, but the Irish priest had just followed me silently on board the covert government transport.

Eve continued with the inexorable process of dying, Zoe spent too much time with her grandparents, and Denny and I worked at slowing the beating of our hearts so we wouldn't feel so much pain.

Everybody has their own idea of what's a poet. Robert Frost, President Johnson, T.S.Eliot, Rudolf Valentino - they're all poets. I like to think of myself as the one who carries the light bulb.

The air was stifling, but he liked it because it was stifling city air, full of excitingly unpleasant smells, dangerous music, and the distant sound of warring police tribes.

Stick a lighted candle up your backside to give yourself that inner glow.

How are the eyes?' 'Oh, excellent,' he said. 'I mean, they're not in my head is the only problem.

And even in the hatred of the majority, there's a kind of triumph because I know that, although they'd never admit it, they secretly respect me.

Sexton: I think the whole world's gone mad. Death: Uh-uh. It's always like this. You probably just don't get out enough.

In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred - everything is for sale.