Human Beings Are Infinitely Worth Studying, Especially

My Grandfather Used To Say, "learn To Like Art, Music And Literature Deeply And Passionately. They Will Be Your Friends When Things Are Bad". It Is True: At This Time Of Year, When Days Are Short And Dark, And One Hardly Dares To Open The Newspapers, I Turn, Not Vainly Either, To The Great Creators Of The Past For Distraction, Solace And Help.

The Writer Learns To Write, In The Last Resort, Only By Writing. He Must Get Words Onto Paper Even If He Is Dissatisfied With Them. A Young Writer Must Cross Many Psychological Barriers To Acquire Confidence In His Capacity To Produce Good Work-especially His First Full-length Book-and He Cannot Do This By Staring At A Piece Of Blank Paper, Searching For The Perfect Sentence.

Every Good Historian Is Almost By Definition A Revisionist. He Looks At The Accepted View Of A Particular Historic Episode Or Period With A Very Critical Eye.

Long Periods Of Recession, Which Tend To Be Self-perpetuating, Are Usually Ended By War, Or By Preparations For It.

His (lenin's)humanitarianism Was A Very Abstract Passion. It Embraced Humanity In General But He Seems To Have Had Little Love For, Or Even Interest In, Humanity In Particular. He Saw The People With Whom He Dealt, His Comrades, Not As Individuals But As Receptacles For His Ideas. On That Basis, And No Other, They Were Judged. He Judged Man Not By Their Moral Qualities But By Their Views, Or Rather The Degree To Which They Accepted His.