Matthew Hall

“In one of the most wrenching tragedies in American history—a chronicle not lacking for tragedy—the Confederacy had lost the war, but it had won the peace.”
― Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States

“That the revival of Christianity coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration, an anniversary made all the more mystical when the news spread that both Jefferson and Adams had died that very day, July 4, 1826, as if by the hand of God, meant that the Declaration itself took on a religious cast. The self-evident, secular truths of the Declaration of Independence became, to evangelical Americans, the truths of revealed religion.”
― Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States

“The past is an inheritance, a gift and a burden. It can’t be shirked. You carry it everywhere. There’s nothing for it but to get to know it.”
― Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States

“Honor,” Apparitor murmured, “is just a credit rating for violence.”
― Seth Dickinson, The Monster Baru Cormorant