1895 quotes by historians for you to enjoy

If a lecturer, he wishes to be heard; if a writer, to be read. He always hopes for a public beyond that of the long-suffering wife. Samuel E. Morison

Wife Hopes Writer He Wishes Beyond Read Always Lecturer Heard Public

Intellectual honesty is the quality that the public in free countries always has expected of historians; much more than that it does not expect, nor often get. Samuel E. Morison

Quality Honesty Honesty Is Free More Countries Does Always Nor Intellectual Historians Expect Than Expected Get Often Public Much

So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it is all coming out. Samuel E. Morison

Myself History Garden Experience First Out About Laws Vast Troubling Without How Coming Causes Cultivated Essential Human Which Human Experience

The same contingencies of time and space that force a statesman or soldier to make decisions, impel the historian, though with less urgency, to make up his mind. Samuel E. Morison

Time Space Mind Soldier Statesman Though Force Make Make Up Time And Space His Historian Up Same Decisions Urgency Less

Throughout this evolution from left to right, Beard always detested war. Hence his writings were slanted to show that the military side of history was insignificant or a mere reflection of economic forces. Samuel E. Morison

War History Beard Reflection Military Side Evolution Insignificant Economic Detested Economic Forces Throughout Writings Mere Forces Always Were His Left Show Hence Slanted Right

When I was six or seven, we went to the nearest English primary school, St Weonards, about seven miles away. The teaching was good, and this was the start of my beginning to shine as a student. Saul David

Good School Shine Beginning Seven About Student Primary Primary School Six Miles Teaching English Away Nearest Start

From 1801, Napoleon began an ambitious programme of civil reform to standardise law and justice, centralise education, introduce uniform weights and measures and a fully functioning internal market. That achievement alone makes him one of the giants of history. Saul David

It is surely no coincidence that Napoleon's two greatest heroes were Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. In certain respects, he would outdo them both. Saul David

Great Heroes Alexander Respects Would Outdo Both He Caesar Napoleon Surely Greatest Were Julius Julius Caesar Them Certain Two Coincidence

Even a moderniser like Alexander II - who emancipated the serfs in 1861 - had no intention of devolving real power. Saul David

Power Alexander No Intention Had Like Real Real Power Intention Who Even

Henry Kissinger is perhaps the best-known American statesman of the 20th century. Saul David

Statesman Kissinger Perhaps American Century Henry

It is not enough just to get your forces from A to B - you have to keep them fed and watered as they go. The art of movement, therefore, is one of the most complex and vital that any commander must master if he is going to win. Saul David

Art You Win Master Enough Complex Must Vital Fed He Most Forces Go Commander Get Any Going Just Movement Them Your Therefore Keep Watered

Winter horseshoes are equipped with little spikes that give a horse traction on snow and ice and prevent it from slipping. Saul David

Winter Slipping Give Prevent Horse Equipped Snow Ice Little

I was brought up with a whole bunch of cousins in the Wye Valley during the hippy days of the 1970s. Saul David

Valley Brought Days Cousins Hippy Up Bunch Whole

There were about 30 children at one stage, running around like savages at a place called Callow Hill, near Monmouth, which was owned by my grandparents. They lived in the big house, but my dad had five brothers and a sister, and they all lived in various houses scattered on the hill. Saul David

Big Sister Stage Running Brothers About Scattered Various Had Like Hill House Houses Around Were Big House Five Owned Children Place Which Grandparents Dad Lived Near Savages

It takes a perverse determination to drain that instinctive curiosity away and make history seem just remote, dead and disconnected from our contemporary reality. Conversely, it just takes skilful storytelling to recharge that connection to make the past come alive in our present. Simon Schama

History Reality Determination Past Our Alive Seem Takes Instinctive Come Remote Contemporary Dead Make Disconnected Curiosity Just Storytelling Perverse Connection Away Present Drain

The Jewish story is the story of wandering. It is the story of extraordinary heterogeneous complication. Simon Schama

Extraordinary Complication Wandering Story Jewish

History is admirably dangerous. It is not the soft option. Teachers need to be grown up and brave. Sensitivity is fine, but it stops at the door of honest narrative. Simon Schama

History Dangerous Fine Narrative Up Option Brave Stops Door Sensitivity Teachers Grown Grown-Up Need Honest Soft

I felt New York was a big, more stylish, more metropolitan Golders Green. I was thrilled. Simon Schama

Big More Thrilled New Felt Stylish Metropolitan Green York New York

In Mesopotamia or Egypt, for example, the monarch had a god-like religious status. But this is not the case in Judaism. So that notion that religion can go on, when all the markers of power and trappings of monarchy disappear, ultimately serves the endurance of Judaism very well. Simon Schama

Religion Example Power Markers Status Religious Case Had Disappear For Example Judaism Well Go Ultimately Very God-Like Egypt Endurance Notion Trappings Monarch Monarchy Serve

Quotes by Historians