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The classics of the ancient world are everywhere in the literature of the Revolution, but they are everywhere illustrative, not determinative, of thought

— Bernard Bailyn The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

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More quotes by Bernard Bailyn

Defiance to constituted authority leaped like a spark from one flammable area to another, growing in heat as it went.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

Whatever deficiencies the leaders of the American Revolution may have had, reticence, fortunately, was not one of them.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

On the evening of October 14, 1774, the Massachusetts delegates were invited to Carpenters' Hall by a group of Philadelphians to do "a little business."

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

What gave transcendent importance to the aggressiveness of power was the fact that its natural prey, its necessary victim, was liberty, or law, or right.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

At first the relevance of chattel slavery to libertarian ideals was noted only in individual passages of isolated pamphlets.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Bernard Bailyn (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.