History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always read more

History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always feels uncomfortable.

Qualities absolutely necessary for a historian: (1) Imagination. (2) Prejudice. (3) The power of writing your own biography at the read more

Qualities absolutely necessary for a historian: (1) Imagination. (2) Prejudice. (3) The power of writing your own biography at the same time.

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

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

Don't brood on what's past, but never forget it either.

Don't brood on what's past, but never forget it either.

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.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the read more

The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the world, the King the word of whose mouth destroys mountains and seas, who by his lordly attack has forced mighty and merciless Kings from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same to acknowledge one supremacy.

History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.

History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.

We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?

We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?