you have to love life to have life, and you need to have life to love life - Thornton Wilder

Most of all, however, these observances attack and undermine the very spirit of life within the minds of men. They afford to our Romans, from the street sweepers to the consuls, a vague sense of confidence where no confidence is and at the same time a pervasive fear, a fear which neither arouses to action nor calls forth ingenuity, but which paralyzes. They remove from men's shoulders the unremitting obligation to create, moment by moment, their own Rome. They come to us sanctioned by the usage of our ancestors and breathing the security of our childhood; they flatter passivity and console inadequacy

The most valuable thing I inherited was a temperament that does not revolt against Necessity and that is constantly renewed in Hope.

All historical novels are science fiction since they are about time travel,