The Whig interpretation of history ... is the tendency in many historians to write on the side of Protestants and Whigs, to praise revolutions provided they have been successful, to emphasise certain principles of progress in the past and to… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
“While there is battle and hatred men have eyes for nothing save the fact that the enemy is the cause of all the troubles;… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
The academic mind can eat away the very basis of its own assurance ... produce contortions when it tries to bend over backward ...… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
Very strange bridges are used to make the passage from one state of things to another; we may lose sight of them in our… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness - each system only too delighted to… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
“History is not the study of origins; rather it is the analysis of all the mediations by which the past was turned into our… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
In the last resort, sheer insight is the greatest asset of all. — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
The study of the past with one eye, so to speak, upon the present is the source of all sins and sophistries in history… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
“The raconteur knows too well that, if he investigates the truth of the matter, he is only too likely to lose his good story.” — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
Those people work more wisely who seek to achieve good in their own small corner of the world ... than those who are forever… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
The study of the past with one eye upon the present is the source of all sins and sophistries in history. It is the… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
About the scientific revolution: it "outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes". — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
It has been said that the historian is the avenger, and that standing as a judge between the parties and rivalries and causes of… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
Concerning alchemy it is more difficult to discover the actual state of things, in that the historians who specialise in this field seem sometimes… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
If history can do anything it is to remind us that all our judgments are merely relative to time and circumstance. — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
It is not a sin to introduce a personal bias that can be recognized and discounted. The sin in historical composition is the organization… — Herbert Butterfield Copy Share Image
