The Archive is the collection of all material traces left behind by a particular historical period and culture which one can use to deduce a historical a priori.

Archive is a kind of thought in which the eye goes beyond things to visibilities and language goes beyond words to utterances.

The Border is the scar of history.

A Border is scratched across the hearts of men by strangers with a calm, judicial pen, and when the borders bleed we watch with dread the lines of ink across the map turn red.

The Border is strategically important — When the lips are gone the teeth are cold.

A Border is established so there is something to fight about.

Custom is a tyrant.

Custom is king over all.

Custom is powerful — there is no way to erase the unwritten law.

Custom is the plague of wise men, and the idol of fools

An Institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; all history resolves itself easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.

The Institution is necessary to the nation — Individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.

The Institution is what springs up where there is a lull of truth, just as a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind.

An Institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley, Abolition, of Clarkson.