Just as philosophy is the study of other people's misconceptions, so history is the study of other people's mistakes.

Just as philosophy is the study of other people's misconceptions, so history is the study of other people's mistakes.

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great read more

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.

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.

History: A distillation of rumor.

History: A distillation of rumor.

There is properly no history, only biography.

There is properly no history, only biography.

The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.

The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.

History is the study of lies, anyway, because no witness ever recalls events with total accuracy, not even eyewitnesses.

History is the study of lies, anyway, because no witness ever recalls events with total accuracy, not even eyewitnesses.

There is no wisdom equal to that which comes after the event.

There is no wisdom equal to that which comes after the event.

Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this.

Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this.