The historian sees backward. In the end he also believes backward.

The historian sees backward. In the end he also believes backward.

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.

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.

Anecdotes are the gleaming toys of history. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which read more

Anecdotes are the gleaming toys of history. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.

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.

What more would you have? He has invented history.
[Fr., Que voulez-vous de plus? Il a invente l'histoire.]

What more would you have? He has invented history.
[Fr., Que voulez-vous de plus? Il a invente l'histoire.]

There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men read more

There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.

A land without ruins is a land without memories--a land without memories is a land without history.

A land without ruins is a land without memories--a land without memories is a land without history.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons read more

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that History has to teach.