The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding. – Will and Ariel Durant, The Reformation

It is pleasant to be transferred from an office where one is afraid of a sergeant-major into an office where one can intimidate generals, and perhaps this is why history is so attractive to the more timid among us. We can recover self-confidence by snubbing the dead. – E.M. Forster, Abinger Harvest