Occupation: Historian Birth: June 29, 1863 Death: February 16, 1936
Curiosity is idle only to those who fail to realize that it may be a very rare and indispensable thing..
There is nothing else anything like so interesting to ourselves as ourselves..
Our goal, simply stated, is to be the best..
Few of us take the pains to study the origin of our cherished convictions..
Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other..
I am opposed to censorship. Censors are pretty sure fools. I have no confidence in the suppression of everyday facts..
We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us….
Mere lack of success does not discredit a method, for there are many things that determine and perpetuate our sanctified ways of doing things besides….
To become historically-minded is to be grown-up..
Rationalizing is the self-exculpation which occurs when we feel ourselves, or our group, accused of misapprehension or error..
History ... may be regarded as an artificial extension and : broadening of our memories and may be used to overcome the natural bewilderment of all u….
We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumpti….
In its amplest meaning History includes every trace and vestige of everything that man has done or thought since first he appeared on the earth..
Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct..
We continue to think of new things in old ways..
We find it hard to believe that other people's thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are..
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do..
We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but if someone tries to take them from us, we defend them with almost an illicit passion..
Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually p….
Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us..
Speech gave man a unique power to lead a double life, he could say one thing and do another..