The Puritans left behind so full a record of what they thought and did that scholars cannot resist the temptation to make the most of it.

The preoccupation of American historical and literary scholars with the New England Puritans must seem to outsiders like an obsession.

Cotton Mather's publications in his own lifetime amounted to more than 400 titles, and his magnum opus, on which he labored most of his life, remains unpublished: a commentary on every verse of every book of the Bible. Anyone who leaves that kind of record behind issues an irresistible invitation to historians.

I resist the temptation to curate my apartment.

Most historians don't much like generalizations. Indeed, they make a trade of showing that this or that generalization about the past will not work here or there or then.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.