“Just a couple of decades ago, a course in the history of Western civilisation was commonplace. Today, it is so disreputable that you can’t pay universities to do it.”

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

Trying to make a joke, 26 June 2008 http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jun/27/mccains-yucca-song-and-dance/
2000s, 2008

Source: Partisan Review (Winter 1967), p. 57

Mark Lilla, "Mr. Casaubon in America", The New York Review of Books (June 28, 2007)

It's the Demography, Stupid (2006)

Trump claiming to have invented the term "prime the pump" http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript in the context of economic stimulus during an interview published in The Economist (11 May 2017)
2010s, 2017, May

The acts might be brutal, but there must be a context to it. I certainly didn’t want to drop the reader into those incidents without telling the story of, well: Why are there refugees? Why were the Israelis and the Palestinians battling along the border? Who were the fedayeen? What was the Israeli response to that? But more than that, I think, for me, the book ends up being—this is going to sound strange—a dead end. Because I don’t know where to go from here, except to delve into human psychology. I think I understand how history works. I understand why one people are battling another people. I understand that they both want land. But ultimately there’s a level that I haven’t really got to yet…
On the multifaceted quality of history in “An Interview with Joe Sacco” https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-joe-sacco/ in Believer Magazine (2011 Jun 1)

Doris, Chapter 12, p. 162
Source: 2000s, At First Sight (2005)
Context: ... What's going on with you two, all this stress you're both under... that's called life. And life has a tendency to throw curveballs when you least expect them. Every couple has ups and downs, every couple argues, and that's the thing--you're a couple, and couples can't function without trust. You have to trust him, and he's got to trust you.

Source: Magic Strikes