Caesar had perished from the world of men, had not his sword been rescued by his pen.
—Henry Vaughan (1621–95) Anglo-Welsh Metaphysical Poet
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind and which we naively expect to find at the end of our errors. Childish presumption which justifies the fact that child-nations, inheriting our follies, are now directing our history.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Reading maketh a full man; conference, a ready man: histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
Historian—an unsuccessful novelist.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
And having wisdom with each studious year, in meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, and shaped his weapon with an edge severe, sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
—Common Proverb
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
It does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance who knows what you know. I see so many new folks nowadays who seem to have neither past nor future. Conversation has got to have some root in the past, or else you have got to explain every remark you make, and it wears a person out.
—Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
History is but a confused heap of facts.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
The pyramids, attached with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
History is a race between education and catastrophe.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Human history in essence is the history of ideas.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
The men who make history have not time to write it.
—Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich (1773–1859) Austrian Political leader, Politician
To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
The first duty of an historian is to be on guard against his own sympathies.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians.
—Samuel Butler
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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