History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice

History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.

Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years.

One of the lessons of history is that 'nothing' is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

What is beauty? why do we admire it? why do we endeavor to create it? [...]
[B]eauty is any quality by which an object or a form pleases a beholder. Primarily and originally the object does not please the beholder because it is beautiful, but rather he calls it beautiful because it pleases him. Any object that satisfies desire will seem beautiful: food is beautiful - Thai's is not beautiful - to a starving man.

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say