“... died instead. The disabilities and illnesses which afflicted Arnold in childhood and early manhood may also have played an important part. Hamilton makes much more than previous biographers have done of the ‘irons’, or leg braces, that the infant wore between the ages of two and four, and which led to his unlovely family nickname, ‘Crabby’ (from his ...”

“... personal physician, we know that he will not be adequate in any way to meet the surprises that may lie ahead. There is a vacancy in him, a hollow that we know will be filled up by the overflowing charisma of what he calls ‘the number one id’. Garrigan’s new master is six foot six inches tall and weighs 20 stone. He is in the rudest of health. There ...”

“... this part of the story. We do not find Abelard inventing a doctrine called nominalism, as Sartre may have invented Existentialism or Barthes or somebody Structuralism. William of Ockham did this two centuries later, but not Abelard. He seems to have drawn the crowds by a witty and unpious mode and a talent for bon mots. We do find him making his way by a ...”

“... doing’, but doesn’t see that as a reason to stop. And there are hints that her purposes may be instrumental as well as altruistic; that she is using stubs to rehearse interventions that she intends to make in her own world too. The Future, to visitors from the past, looks like a utopia of comfort and ease, but it has come at immense cost: most life ...”

“... for it.’ How else to describe the certainty, the cutting elegance, of these formulations?Gossip may be the beginning of moral inquiry, the low end of the Platonic ladder that leads to self-understanding … If marriage is, as Mill suggested, a political experience, then discussion of it ought to be taken as seriously as talk about national ...”

“... them?’ This explains Lydia’s childhood fondness for Choose Your Own Adventure books, which may or may not have been available in Mexico but were certainly popular among American children when Cummins and I were growing up. Writing a self-portrait and transposing it across a politically fraught border zone – in ...”

“... idea that structures of knowledge are multiple and simultaneous is repeated across the book:Peace! May all glory be to thee, Giver Supreme.Peace! May all glory be to thee, Giver Supreme.In some parts of Africa, they call it Mulungu, but it is the same Giver.The Zulu call him Unkulunkulu, but he is the same Giver.Others call ...”

“... the capacity of historians to do their work and exerts a wider chilling effect. It may deter – it may be intended to deter – historians from embarking on difficult or sensitive research.’ There is also evidence of interference in the museum sector, where trustees have apparently been threatened by the ...”

“... which,Were it the fashion to wear no clothes,Would be as well-dressedAs any.There may be more eyewitness descriptions of Millay’s body than of any other poet writing in English: she was fond of skinny-dipping with friends and weeding in the nude. She lived by her own laws and can’t be neatly slotted into narratives of feminist triumphalism ...”

“... frescoes and pestilential air induce a feverish pleasure all the more delightful because it may be fatal. In Italian Hours, his 1909 collection of travel writing, James recalls a villa fallen into ruin, ‘walls tattered and befouled breast-high, dampness and decay striking in on your heart … these heavenly frescoes, mouldering there in their airy ...”

“... according to Hegel, plays a crucial role in history: when something happens just once, it may be dismissed as an accident, something that might have been avoided if the situation had been handled differently; but when the same event repeats itself, it is a sign that a deeper historical process is unfolding. When Napoleon lost at Leipzig in 1813, it ...”

“... is not enough to acknowledge our complicity; we should participate in changing those processes.It may be that we owe it to these workers to abolish their work – making it visible isn’t enough. The first step is for workers to try to change their conditions, but for those in ‘dirty’ sectors, means of resistance are limited: filling in forms (tedious ...”

“... the occasion as I recall it, the drab light and huddled aspect of the shoe shop, suggest that this may be one of those false memories you hear so much about, conjured up to match the dismal mood of the event. The old man who owned the place, unshaven, bent, gruff and wheezing – the Victorian workhouse vision just won’t go back in its box – inspected the ...”

“... would drag to hell A spirit from on high. Orphans can cast the evil eye on us; their bad luck may be communicable. But what Riley was primarily saying was then considered perfectly acceptable: the poor and unfortunate were put here by divine dispensation so that luckier people could acquire merit by exercising charity towards them. Such Victorian ...”

“... parties? Lucas has been a successful MP, but if the Greens do gain seats in this election, she may discover that some things are more easily achieved on one’s own: one of them is maintaining an ‘anti-party’ image. In 2011, the Greens took minority control of Brighton and Hove City Council. The results have left the party open to questions about its ...”