And having wisdom with each studious year, in meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, and shaped his weapon with an edge severe, sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer. – Lord (George Gordon) Byron

Love is the whole history of a womans life, it is but an episode in a mans. – Madame de Stael

[H]istory is a melodrama on the theme of parasitism, characterized by scenes that are exciting or dull, as the case may be, and many a sudden stagetrick. – Max Nordau, The Interpretation of History