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Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.

Stories about vicars are always being told because they're at the heart of our society. Vicars touch all parts of the community and see life in all its extremity.

The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn't enter into it.

What I found was when I started my first study, and then in subsequent studies, is here you have people under some kind of duress, or I chose to study them because they represented some kind of historical event, as it impacted on them or as they helped to create it.

History provides a sense of where we've been and lessons that can be taken forward.

Often the presence of mind and energy of a person remote from the spotlight decide the course of history for centuries to come.

History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.

You learn history in school, and you have a reverential feeling toward it. But by being irreverent, it feels current.

With honesty of purpose, balance, a respect for tradition, courage, and, above all, a philosophy of life, any young person who embraces the historical profession will find it rich in rewards and durable in satisfaction.

History provides an antidote to cynicism about the past.