The peace does not keep itself, and though it may be intellectually unfashionable to say so, the world needs a policeman. - Donald Kagan

We are the product of Western civilization, so it’s necessary to understand yourself before you can understand anyone else.

In my judgment, the best history is one that tells a story and combines it with analysis. The natural way for an historian to analyze things includes answering with a tale. The combination of telling an interesting story and answering questions along the way that an intelligent person is interested in hearing about--that's history at its peak, in my opinion.

Seeing what Hitler and the Nazis had done, I knew there was real evil in the world, and after that, I couldn’t take pacifists seriously.