Historian Quotes

449 Historian quotes by 349 unique authors

History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us. — Julian Barnes
Oh, my dear Vimes, history changes all the time. It is constantly being re-examined and re-evaluated, otherwise how would we be able to keep historians… — Terry Pratchett
This is what historians usually do, quibble about cause and effect when the point is, there are times when the world is in flux and… — Orson Scott Card
Periods' are largely an invention of the historians. The poets themselves are not conscious of living in any period and refuse to conform to the… — C.S. Lewis
That's one of the central problems of history, isn't it, sir? The question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know… — Julian Barnes
We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost. — Gaston Bachelard
The Tarahumara would party like this all night, then rouse themselves the next morning to face off in a running race that could last not… — Christopher McDougall
It frustrates and fascinates me that we'll never know for sure, that despite the best efforts of historians and scientists and poets, there are some… — Isaac Marion
I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number of facts, what… — Howard Zinn
I hope some historian will confirm that I was the first cartoonist to use the word 'booger' in a newspaper comic strip. — Bill Watterson
My experiences thus far had me planning to throttle the first Tudor historian I met upon my return for gross dereliction of duty. — Deborah Harkness
[talking about the Holocaust] 'But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained.… — Alan Bennett
America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a culture of character to a culture of personality, and opened up a Pandora's… — Susan Cain
There are no self-proclaimed villains, only regiments of self-proclaimed saints. Victorious historians rule where good or evil lies. — Glen Cook
Everyone knows history is written by the winners, but that cliche misses a crucial detail: Over time, the winners are always the progressives. Conservatism can… — Chuck Klosterman
A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect. — Francois Fenelon
When a historian enters into metaphysics he has gone to a far country from whose bourne he will never return a historian. — Shailer Mathews
History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another. — Max Beerbohm
With the historian it is an article of faith that knowledge of the past is a key to understanding the present. — Unknown Author
To converse with historians is to keep good company; many of them were excellent men, and those who were not, have taken care to appear… — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
The historian amputates reality. — Gaetano Salvemini
The first law of history is to dread uttering a falsehood; the next is not to fear stating the truth; lastly, the historian's writings should… — Pope Leo XIII
History is the most aristocratic of all literary pursuits, because it obliges the historian to be rich as well as educated. — Henry Adams
The historian ought to be the humblest of men; he is faced a dozen times a day with the evidence of his own ignorance; he… — C. V. Wedgwood
The passion for tidiness is the historian's occupational disease. — Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Who Wrote These Historian Quotes

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