84 Historian Quotes for You to Enjoy

The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale. He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies. Marc Bloch

Good Scent Giant Lies He Tale Like Fairy Knows Fairy Tale Quarry His Historian Human Wherever Flesh

The historian is, by definition, absolutely incapable of observing the facts which he examines. Marc Bloch

Definition Absolutely Facts He Observing Historian Which Incapable

Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger. Michael N. Castle

Great Struggle Rights Stronger Poet Civil Civil Rights Angelou Only Voices Contemporary Makes Historian Person American Maya Angelou African Famous African-American Literature Who Many Activist Believes

Whether religion is man-made is a question for philosophers or theologians. But the forms are man-made. They are a human response to something. As a historian of religions, I am interested in those expressions. Mircea Eliade

Religion Philosophers Those Response Religions Something Am Question Historian Man-Made Human Whether Interested Forms Theologians Expressions

The real point of me isn't that I'm good looking. It's that I'm clever. I've got a brain! I would rather be called a highly intelligent historian than a gorgeous pouting one. Niall Ferguson

Good Me Gorgeous Looking Clever Would Rather Point Good-Looking Highly Got Real Brain Historian Intelligent Than

Looking back as an historian, I find myself having great respect for Ronald Reagan's consistency: his absolute conviction that the Soviet Union - the only competing world empire at the time - was bound to collapse! Nigel Hamilton

Time Myself Great Respect World Consistency Looking Looking Back Conviction Back Collapse Find Having Only Absolute Great Respect Bound Empire Reagan His Historian Soviet Soviet Union Union Competing

It's the historian's job not to ridicule the myths, but to show the difference between myth and reality. Norman Davies

Reality Job Myth Myths Between Historian Difference Show Ridicule

A bad historian is even more dangerous than dead documentary wood. Norman Davies

Dangerous Bad More Dead Documentary Historian Than Wood Even

But in answer to your question about the conspiracy angle, I think that any historian worth his salt, and this is where I fault Stephen Ambrose and a lot of these guys who attack me - not all of life is a result of conspiracy by any means! Accident occurs alongside conspiracy. Oliver Stone

Life Me Fault Worth Result Conspiracy Life Is A Accident Salt Think About Angle Guys Attack Alongside Answer Occurs His Question Historian Lot Any Where Means Your Who

If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive. Paul Johnson

Racism Mind Anti-Semitism Extremely Characteristics Destructive Would Variety Category Most Massively Call Historian Intellectual Infectious Disease Quite Different Placed View Many Unique Deserves Peculiar

Why should a novelist not also be a historian? To force unnatural divisions within the English language is to work against its capacious and accommodating nature. To expect a writer to produce only novels, or only histories, is equivalent to demanding from a composer that he or she write only string quartets or piano sonatas. Peter Ackroyd

Work Nature Language Demanding String Unnatural Composer Only Write Piano Writer He Divisions He Or She Also She Force Within Equivalent Historian Histories Expect Against Produce Should English English Language Novelist Novels Why

The historian's job is to aggrandize, promoting accident to inevitability and innocuous circumstance to portent. Peter Conrad

Job Accident Circumstance Promoting Inevitability Historian

Every historian has informally an anthropology, without ever using the word. Peter Gay

Word Every Without Anthropology Historian Using Ever

It is the job of the historian to say what is likely, and of faith to say what is possible. Reza Aslan

Faith Job Say Possible Likely Historian

Personally, speaking as a historian and a storyteller, when it comes to inaccuracy in historical fictioneering, I follow the Shakespeare principle: I'm willing to overlook gobs of mistaken detail if the poetic valence is basically correct. Rick Perlstein

Correct Willing Detail Follow Shakespeare Poetic Mistaken Principle Overlook Historian Historical Inaccuracy Storyteller Personally Speaking Basically

My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were perfect foils for that story. Rick Perlstein

I worked for a brief spell as a journalist, but soon I discovered that I didn't want to be a journalist - I wanted to be a historian. Robert Darnton

Journalist Spell Soon Discovered Historian Want Wanted Worked Brief

I can find my way from 500 A.D. through to 1066 pretty well as an amateur historian. Robert Plant

Way Find Pretty Through Well Amateur Historian

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

The novelist's obligation to remake the sensuous texture of a vanished world is also the historian's. The strongest fiction writers often do deep research to make the thought and utterances of lost time credible. Simon Schama

In my work as a historian and in my relationships as a friend, teacher, wife, and mother, I have come to think that the most useful way to understand the past and make it work for you is to look at the trade-offs and contradictions that, however deeply buried, can be uncovered in every memory, good or bad. Stephanie Coontz

Work Teacher Good You Memory Mother Wife Past Every Think Relationships Way Bad Uncovered Come Look Most Make Understand However Historian Friend Contradictions Buried Useful Deeply

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