Historian Quote by A.S. Byatt

“A historian ought to be exact, sincere and impartial; free from passion, unbiased by interest, fear, resentment or affection; and faithful to the truth,…

— Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

“History deals with situations and figures not imaginary but real. It demands therefore a combination of qualities unnecessary to the poet or writer of…

— Norman Douglas

“A novelist is really nothing more than an historian of a people who have no history.”

— Federico Gamboa

So, then, the best of the historian is subject to the poet; for whatsoever action or faction, whatsoever counsel, policy, or war-stratagem the historian…

— Philip Sidney

“Recent fads in history and biography have increasingly exalted the aridity of chronology and fact, and have, with some valid reason, rejected romanticizing and…

— Markham Shaw Pyle

“since historians must and ought to be exact, truthful, and absolutely free of passions, for neither interest, fear, rancor, nor affection should make them…

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The historian should be fearless and incorruptible; a man of independence, loving frankness and truth; one who, as the poets says, calls a fig…

— Lucian

What his imagination is to the poet, facts are to the historian. His exercise of judgment comes in their selection, his art in their…

— Barbara Tuchman

I think poets tell better history than historians. Historians lie all the time but the poets can get to truth of it.

— John Cusack

“The poet writes the history of his own body.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“History describes what has happened, poetry what might. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and serious than history; for poetry speaks of what is…

— Aristotle

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of…

— Will Durant