History: A distillation of rumor.

History: A distillation of rumor.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause read more

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.

The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.

The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.

History belongs to the winner.

History belongs to the winner.

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair read more

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair and sees the tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once.

Now stiff on a pillar with a phallic air nelson stylites in Trafalgar square reminds the British what once they read more

Now stiff on a pillar with a phallic air nelson stylites in Trafalgar square reminds the British what once they were.

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands read more

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.