Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
History Quotes
It is safe to say that every truth in the histories of those times (The Bible) is the result of accident or mistake.
The history of mankind informs us that a single power is very seldom broken by a confederacy. States of different interests, and aspects malevolent to each other, may be united for a time by common distress; and in the ardour of self-preservation fall unanimously upon an enemy, by whom they are all equally endangered. But […]
We will hereafter believe less history than ever, now that we have seen how it is made.
(Man’s) history is a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.
Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions.
History seems to us an arena of instincts and fashions, of appetite, avarice, and craving for power, of blood lust, violence, destruction, and wars, of ambitious ministers, venal generals, bombarded cities, and we too easily forget that this is only one of its many aspects. Above all we forget that we ourselves are a part […]
History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription moulders from the tablet; the statue falls from the pedestal. – Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand, and their epitaphs but characters written in the dust?
We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentic history. That certain Kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend on as true; but all the coloring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture.
All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedious.
