#historian

God cannot alter the past, though historians can. ↗

— Samuel Butler

#alter #cannot #god #historians #past

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#clarifies #first #highest #historian #ignorance

All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind. ↗

— Carl L. Becker

#historians #history #age

I began with the desire to speak with the dead. ↗

— Stephen Greenblatt

#education #historians #history #knowledge #shakespeare

A historian tries to understand what happened, why it happened, what was the context, who did what, and what assumptions led them to act as they did. A historian customarily displays a certain diffidence about trying to influence events, knowing that unanticipated developments often lead to unintended consequences. ↗

— Diane Ravitch

#history #death

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

#historians #literature #description

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

— Antony Beevor

#duty #historian #more #simply #than

If Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe. ↗

— Simone Weil

#civilized #destroy #enslave #europe #european

Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present. ↗

— Edmond de Goncourt

#novelists #past #present #story #tell

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects. ↗

— Herodotus

#correct #defects #few #few things #happen