The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides
appears to assert when he says history is philosophy read more

The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides
appears to assert when he says history is philosophy learned from
examples.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in read more

It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically.

Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.