Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian --ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art."

"It is not the historian's business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them . . . dispassionately, impartially and without ulterior motives."

Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

One should be just as careful about lying as about telling the truth.