The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.

The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.

In a certain sense all men are historians.

In a certain sense all men are historians.

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up read more

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.

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

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

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down.

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down.

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

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

Look to the past for guidance into the future.

Look to the past for guidance into the future.

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.

A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a read more

A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because he thinks logically and analytically; or because he is "sensitive;" or because he is cruel. Wealth establishes a man as a hero, and so does poverty. Virtually any circumstance in a man's life will make him a hero to some group of people and has a mythic rendering in the culture -- in literature, art, theater, or the daily newspapers.