It is part of my creed that the only poetry is history, could we tell it right. – Thomas Carlyle
Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles. – Thomas Carlyle
Nothing that was worthy in the past departs no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die. – Thomas Carlyle
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! – Thomas Carlyle
From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan, every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. Well all be much saner, I think, if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next. – Jon Meacham