Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.
Getting close to books, and spending time by myself, I was obliged to think about things I would never have thought about if I was busy romping around with a brother and sister.
And I really do think that the difficulty of research makes it more real to you than punching a thing to find out how many men were killed at this particular action.
I've never known, at least a modern historical instance, where the truth wasn't superior to distortion in every way.
I took five years on the first volume, five years on the second volume, and ten years on the third volume.
Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.
If you want to study writing, read Dickens
Prayer is a silent surrendering of everything to God.
A scholar like myself who is not a Sinologist and yet ventures the proposition that Chinese languages should be rewritten in the Greek alphabet (or "Romanized", to use the current term) is treading on uncharted territory (for him) and does so at his peril.
Around the world, America's influence has declined while president Barack Obama has destroyed our military, our allies no longer trust us, and our adversaries no longer respect us.
When I warned them [the French] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken. Some chicken! Some neck!