The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobo… - Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

They (Thucydides and Xenophon) maintained the dignity of history.

Another party [the Tories<nowiki>]</nowiki> continued sour, sullen, and inactive, with judgments so weak, and passions so strong, that even experience, and a severe one surely, was lost upon them. They waited, like the Jews, for a Messiah, that may never come; and under whom, if he did come, they would be strangely disappointed in their expectations of glory and triumph, and universal dominion. Whilst they waited, they were marked out like the Jews, a distinct race, hewers of wood and drawers of water, scarce members of the community, tho born in the country.

We are born too late to see the beginning, and we die too soon to see the end of many things.