Ability Quote by Samuel Johnson

To be a really good historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul.

— Thomas Carlyle

Qualities absolutely necessary for a historian: (1) Imagination. (2) Prejudice. (3) The power of writing your own biography at the same time.

— Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and…

— Victor Hugo

“What are the qualities of human greatness that create history? Every time, if we think far enough, it is an ability to look through…

— Jane Adams

“It is worth noting the qualities this historian ascribes to them: they were fearless, high-principled, deeply versed in ancient and modern political thought, astute…

— Barbara W. Tuchman

The best historian is he who combines knowledge of the evidence with the largest intellect, the warmest human sympathy and the highest imaginative powers.

— G. M. Trevelyan

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as…

— Thomas B. Macaulay

“History has taught us that the nature of man is evil, sublimely so. Good is not perfectible, but evil is. Why should you not…

— Elizabeth Kostova

“No one is a good historian of the patent, visible, striking, and public life of peoples, if he is not, at the same time,…

— Anonymous

History is an indispensable even though not the highest form of intellectual endeavor.

— Carl L. Becker

When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity…

— Leo Tolstoy