The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesnt enter into it.

When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood NOT as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left.

Nineteenth-century grass-roots populism made twentieth-century progressivism possible.

History is a long and endlessly interesting argument, where evidence is everything and storytelling is everything else.

Why do beautiful women love ugly men?

Mainly, the more faddish and newer stages of life are really just marketing schemes. Tweenhood. The young old. The quarter-life crisis.

Germ theory, which secularized infectious disease, had a side effect: it sacralized epidemiology.

Stages of life are artifacts. Adolescence is a useful contrivance, midlife is a moving target, senior citizens are an interest group, and tweenhood is just plain made up.

In kindergarten, you can learn how to be a citizen of the world.

Folklore used to be passed by word of mouth, from one generation to the next; thats what makes it folklore, as opposed to, say, history, which is written down and stored in an archive.

Old reference books are like tree rings. Without them, there'd be no way to know what a tree had lived through.

In the energy field, you have the power to create synchronicity at any time. Feel the joy, surprise, and perfect fit of connecting with the very person who is part of igniting your desire.

You can hide things from the world, but you can never hide things from time.

Insecure people only eclipse your sun because they’re jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights.

A whole stack of memories never equal one little hope.

I fear that I won't work in the theatre again. I'm sad about that. But I won't retire.

To be bored to death is a form of suicide.

A sister they had, Galadriel, most beautiful of all the house of Finwë; her hair was lit with gold as though it had caught in a mesh the radiance of Laurelin.

My characters, I find them as I'm writing. It's quite incredible how fully realized they are in my mind, how many details I know about each of them.

Instead of being afraid of the challenge and failure, be afraid of avoiding the challenge and doing nothing

Sir, I have quarrelled with my wife; and a man who has quarrelled with his wife is absolved from all duty to his country.