We bow with resignation beneath the tempestuous storms of life; but a daily vexation, like a moth eating a garment, consumes our virtue. – Anonymous, Aphorisms; or, A Glance at Human Nature, in Original Maxims, 1820
There are in every man, always, two simultaneous allegiances, one to God, the other to Satan. Invocation of God, or Spirituality, is a desire to climb higher; that of Satan, or animality, is delight in descent. – Charles Baudelaire
They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny a sun because it is not always day. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers
You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living. – Ken Burns