What is the student but a lover courting a fickle mistress who ever eludes his grasp?

Students often say things that they will one day change their minds about, but also things that change our minds when we think about them.

Academic studies in general is not something that I'm very good at.

Historians have become far too precious. Their work has become ever more specialised and, as they steadily lose the context of their studies, they end up knowing more and more about less and less. It's a malaise that has now infected A-levels and GCSEs.

To become an academic expert takes years of studying. Academic experts are experts in how and what others have done. They use case studies and observation to understand a subject.

How do you know what it's like to be stupid if you've never been smart?

I love to read different books on completely different subjects at the same time. I cannot focus on one. I read a few pages of literature, then I jump to philosophy and at the same time I'm reading biographies of Mahler.

The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language: Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.

He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two.

There is very little knowledge that can't be obtained through effort. With knowledge you can determine the state of any business or opportunity and find a course to gain an advantage.

Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.