The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.

The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.

Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

It is probably always disastrous not to be a poet.

Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

Englishmen have always loved Moliere.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

Intelligence is what we learn. Wisdom is what we unlearn.

Because you believed In yourselfYour tiny selfBecause you knewThere is no greater accomplishmentThan making someone love you

Apollo 13, as you may remember, gave us a reactor that is bubbling away right now somewhere in the Pacific. It's supposed to be bubbling away on the moon, but it's in the Pacific Ocean instead.

I didn't want my music to be confused - even though I was and had a lot of questions. I wanted my music to capture a period in my life where I was sure.

When you are expending much energy on someone else's demise, it's like you weaken your psychic immune system.

You might be a redneck if your Momma would rather go the racetrack than the Kennedy Center.

I have no doubt there are magician psychopaths, and magician serial killers. I doubt Brakebills admissions is very good at screening for those.

I wish you all the pleasurable excitement one can have without hurting others and one's own dignity.

Christians need never be sick, any more than they need to be sinful. It is always God's desire to heal you.

My parents are both average size. For them to have a child who was very, very different and very, very small must have been incredibly hard.