One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, – to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary, to collect sagas and heap cairns. This instinct as to the enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization. – John Jay Chapman, Memories and Milestones

In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History? – Charles de Gaulle