"To be ignorant of what occurred before..." - Quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Peace is liberty in tranquillity.”

“What the object of senile avarice may be I cannot conceive. For can there be anything more absurd than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?”

“Now in regard to trades and other means of livelihood, which ones are to be considered becoming to a gentleman and which ones are vulgar, we have been taught, in general, as follows. First, those means of livelihood are rejected as undesirable which incur people's ill-will, as those of tax-gatherers and usurers. Unbecoming to a gentleman, too, and vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labour, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery.”

“The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.”

“Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.”

“We had quitters during the Revolution too...we called them 'Kentuckians.'”

“Actually if a writer needs a dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least three times from beginning to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs it. There are only certain words which are valid and similes (bring me my dictionary) are like defective ammunition (the lowest thing I can think of at this time).”

“Fascination is one step beyond interest. Interested people want to know if it works. Fascinated people want to learn how it works.”

“Error has made man so deep, sensitive, and inventive that he has put forth such blossoms as religions and arts. Pure knowledge could not have been capable of it.”