History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons read more

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

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.

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 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.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and read more

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today.

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.