"If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside."

"Of all the failed technologies that litter the onward march of science - steam carriages, zeppelins, armoured trains - none has been so catastrophic to prosperity as the last century's attempt to generate electricity from nuclear fission."

"To make a love story, you need a couple of young people, but to reflect on the nature of love, you're better off with old ones. That is a fact of life and literature - and of the novel ever since it fell in love with love in the 18th century."

"Whatever else it was, Adolf Hitler's short-lived regime was also a colossal industrial process by which the wealth and productive power of much of Europe was wrenched from its normal purposes and converted into a machine for killing."

"The richness of existence is found in simple harmonies, not superfluous splendors. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Peace of heart is the greatest luxury life can bestow upon the mortal traveler. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."

"He who conquers his inner doubts has already won half the war. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Every second given to regret is a precious second stolen from creation. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."