The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.

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.

No historian can take part with--or against--the forces he has to study. To him even the extinction of the human read more

No historian can take part with--or against--the forces he has to study. To him even the extinction of the human race should merely be a fact to be grouped with other vital statistics.

History: An account, mostly false, of events unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

History: An account, mostly false, of events unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair read more

The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair and sees the tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once.

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they
have exhausted all other alternatives.

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they
have exhausted all other alternatives.

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed read more

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history.