“History is not was, it’s is.” William Faulkner

“As a wise man once said to me, everything is harder than it looks.” Rob Long in National Review July 31, 2000

“Ill tales of me shall no man tell, say I!” Oliver in The Song of Roland (contemplating his imminent demise at the hands of a vast Saracen army)

“Figure out who you are, and then do it on purpose.” Dolly Parton

“Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.” G.K. Chesterton in 1908, quoted by Mike Foster in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 9 #3 (December 2005)

“Life continues to be an Italian opera, adjusted by the censor. The story is absurd, the music irresistible.” George Jonas Beethoven’s Mask (concluding thought in author’s Preface)

“History with all her volumes vast has but one page” Lord Byron, quoted by Richard Weaver The Ethics of Rhetoric (lamenting that phrases like “history proves” and “history shows” no longer carry the weight they once did)

“Do not bother with economics. You will learn nothing from it. Read economic history, and think about it.” Historian Paul Johnson (specifically what he tells senior executives when he lectures to them) in National Review November 4, 1991