Historian Quotes

449 Historian quotes by 349 unique authors

Why did the Articles [of Confederation] fail so completely? Most historians believe the founding fathers spent a great deal of their first constitutional convention drafting… — Jon Stewart
Historians are to nationalism what poppy-growers in Pakistan are to heroin-addicts: we supply the essential raw material for the market. — Eric Hobsbawm
I believe this. When we meet those we fall in love with, there is an aspect of our spirit that is historian, a bit of… — Michael Ondaatje
Whether we are reading the Bible for the first time or standing in a field in Israel next to a historian and an archaeologist and… — Rob Bell
Heart and head are contrary historians. — Jerry Spinelli
It is one thing to write as poet and another to write as a historian: the poet can recount or sing about things not as… — Miguel de Cervantes
As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching… — Elizabeth Kostova
Whether I like it or not, most of my images of what various historical periods feel, smell, or sound like were acquired well before I… — Lauren Willig
This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings… — Jerry Spinelli
We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the… — Gaston Bachelard
God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past. — Ambrose Bierce
Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between… — Tom Robbins
Who says history is stagnant? For a historian, facts do not change; it is the way we look at things, our interpretations, that are always… — Ambeth R. Ocampo
The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt;… — Gilbert K. Chesterton
We are not philosophers, we are sovereigns. The rules that govern our behavior are not the rules for other men, and our honor, I think,… — Megan Whalen Turner
Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the… — Hannah Arendt
Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, 'fertility cults,' we might consider the religions of… — Merlin Stone
History is gossip that's been legitimized, and that's really the case when you get into some of the Roman historians. Wow! They'd be right at… — Esther M. Friesner
Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get… — Yann Martel
Although I am an anarch, I am not anti-authoritarian. Quite the opposite: I need authority, although I do not believe in it. My critical faculties… — Ernst Junger
I believe that all novels, ... deal with character, and that it is to express character – not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate… — Ursula K. Le Guin
emotion clouds the rational, and many perspectives guide the full reality. To view current events as a historian is to account for all perspectives, even… — R A Salvatore
Do you really believe ... that everything historians tell us about men – or about women – is actually true? You ought to consider the… — Moderata Fonte
After all, history is a type of fantasy. For all the primary source research, in the end, the past world the historian builds is as… — Ysabeau S. Wilce
As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. — Margaret Atwood

Who Wrote These Historian Quotes

349 authors contributed a total of 449 Historian Quotes, led by these top contributors: