With copious evidence ranging from Platos haughtiness to Beethovens tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a prickly lot. – Stephen Jay Gould

The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history. – Will and Ariel Durant, Lessons of History

Bound as our lives are to the tyranny of time, it is through what we know of history that we are delivered from our bonds and escape – into time. – A.L. Rowse, The Use of History