“The study of history brings to youth the experience that is lacking to it; it can help the adolescent to overcome his most usual temptation: to be exclusive, to condemn in advance some particular tendency, person, or group; to have a vision of the universe limited only to his own vision (and if only this were a matter merely of adolescents!). At the age when it is important to confront the values received – those of his surroundings, childhood, family, or social milieu – with his own personality, the study of history would enlarge the field of this investigation… By familiarizing oneself with other times, other eras, other civilizations, one acquires the habit of distrusting criteria of one’s own time…”

Régine Pernoud, Those Terrible Middle AgesPernoud TMA p. 170.

"Knowledge leads either to reverence or arrogance."

"Anonymous”, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail December 6, 2006

"When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you."

Irving Layton, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe & Mail August 8, 2001

"Every family should have at least three children. Then, if one is a genius, the other two can support him."

George Coote, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe & Mail May 10, 2001.

"A wise man hears one word and understands two."

"a Yiddish proverb" quoted in BC Report December 28, 1998

"One science only will one genius fit/ So vast is art, so narrow human wit."

Alexander Pope, quoted in Marshall McLuhan The Gutenberg Galaxy 

"people for whom 'history' is whatever happened two weeks ago, the same people who will be likely to assure us in their next breath that Britney Spears, or some other confection du jour, is the greatest pop singer 'of all time.' Imagine that. All time. That term might even span as much as a whole decade."

Wilfred M. McClay in First Things February 2002