Charles Austin Beard on Seeing Stars

The lessons of history? There are four:

• The bee fertilizes the flower it robs;
• whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power;
• the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small;
• when it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Charles Austin Beard was a remarkable historian with a witty turn of phrase. This attributed quote is said to have been in response to a request from a publisher for a book on the lessons of history.