Documents Quote by Henry James

History must speak for itself. A historian is content if he has been able to shed more light.

— William L. Shirer

I believe that the supreme duty of the historian is to write history, that is to say, to attempt to record in one sweeping…

— Steven Runciman

The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that.

— Antony Beevor

The only business of the historian is to relate things exactly as they are: this he can never do as long as he is…

— Anonymous

The historian must not try to know what is truth, if he values his honesty; for if he cares for his truths, he is…

— 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;…

— C. V. Wedgwood

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out…

— Howard Nemerov

A historian has many duties... the first is not to slander; the second is not to bore

— Voltaire

I'm a dramatist. Dramatists have a right to look at history and interpret it the way they see it.

— Oliver Stone

As historians write more and more histories, it's a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that other historians read their histories and then make synthesis, and…

— Peter Morgan

The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave.

— Edward Gibbon

The man who ventures to write contemporary history must expect to be attacked both for everything he has said and everything he has not…

— Voltaire