“history is our attempt to reconstruct the past from the evidence that remains”

“Our cultural debt to the idolatry of pagan Egypt was largely expunged from history by Christian revisionists.”

“Better for real things to be uncontrollable, better for one's life to be undecipherable and intellectually impenetrable than to attempt to make casual sense of what is unknown with a fantasy that is mad. Better, I thought, that the events of these past three days should remain incomprehensible to me forever than to posit, as I had just been doing, a conspiracy of foreign intelligence agents who are determined to control my mind. We've all heard that one before.”

“Some may call you crazy if you try to reason with a dog. It is with desperate attempts that you hope they understand you. When the realization sinks in that your futile pleading goes without understanding or care, you are left with no choice but to think of the next best thing. From Finally Home: Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog”

“This joint is a scam”

“in writing like this, he was letting truth from beyond time into history, and thus making history the handmaid of posterity and not its governor...”

“There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.”