The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds. – Paul Valery
God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly. – Paul Valery
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