Historian Quotes - Page 30

• When I meet a historian who cannot think that there have been great men, great men moreover in politics, I feel myself in the presence of a bad historian, and there are times when I incline to judge all historians by their opinion of Winston Churchill -- whether they can see that, no matter how much better the details, often damaging, of man and career become known, he still remains quite simply, a great man.

  Geoffrey Elton

  Men, Thinking, Careers

  1970 Political History, ch.2.

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• . . . What role does historiography play in the way a society and culture "remembers" past events? Does the historian have a moral or civic responsibility to this project of memory that ought to influence the way he or she engages in historical practice? Should moral concerns influence the historian's choice of subject matter, of issues to discuss, of evidence to use?

  Michael L Morgan

  Memories, Responsibility, Past

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• There are some historians who say that democratic republics dont last more than 200 years. Well, weve got to show that you can last more than 200 years. Weve got to continue to sustain the system, and the only way you can do it is by sustaining the constitution and by confronting lies face to face, head on, aggressively.

  Maurice Hinchey

  Lying, Years, Republic

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• I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis

  Antony Beevor

  Mean, Thinking, Select

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• What suggests to non-Evangelical scholars that the resurrection narratives contain legendary accounts? First there is a variety of apparent contradictions in the stories which in any ancient narrative would have to arouse the historian's suspicion.

  Robert M. Price

  Religion, Stories, Narrative

  Robert M. Price (2008). “Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity”, p.75, Wildside Press LLC

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• I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does.

  Antony Beevor

  Doe, Way, Feels

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• Traditionally art is to create and not to revive. To revive: leave that to the historians, who are looking backward.

  Josef Albers

  Art, Tradition, Revive

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• It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.

  Ferdinand de Saussure

  Different, Able, Language

  "Saussure's Third Course of Lectures on General Linghuistics (1910-1911)" by Ferdinand de Saussure, Pergamon Press, www.marxists.org. 1993.

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• Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

  Antoine Rivarol

  Passion, Actors, Reason

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• Two main groups like to drop the readymade bomb—galleries and art historians. Galleries love to drop the Duchamp brand because dealers can try to convince clients of an artist’s worth just by mentioning the mouthwatering response readymade. Most Art Historians aren’t interested in what artists are making in Bushwick studios, most of whom rarely wake up with Duchamp on the brain.

  Paddy Johnson

  Art, Two, Brain

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• When I first collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word; I therefore extracted from philosophers principles of science; from historians remarkable facts; from chymists complete processes; from divines striking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Beautiful, Illustration, Firsts

  Samuel Johnson (2006). “A Dictionary of the English Language: an Anthology: an Anthology”, p.101, Penguin UK

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• Whether religion is man-made is a question for philosophers or theologians. But the forms are man-made. They are a human response to something. As a historian of religions, I am interested in those expressions.

  Mircea Eliade

  Men, Expression, Philosopher

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• All that the historians give us are little oases in the desert of time, and we linger fondly in these, forgetting the vast tracks between one and another that were trodden by the weary generations of men.

  J. A. Spender

  Men, Oasis, Track

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• I am not a historian. I happen to think that the content of my mother's life - her myths, her superstitions, her prayers, the contents of her pantry, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter - are all worthy of art.

  August Wilson

  Mother, Song, Art

  August Wilson (1997). “Seven Guitars”, p.10, Penguin

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• Far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca. 285-337) caused the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.

  Rodney Stark

  Long, Triumph, Arrogant

  "For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery". Book by Rodney Stark, August 29, 2004.

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• Oh no, I'm not a historian or anything like that.

  Lee Hazlewood

  "Burning brightly". Interview with Richard Hawley, www.theguardian.com. October 15, 2006.

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• If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses, and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history.

  Pierre Bayle

  History, Weakness, Crime

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• As the NFF Historian, I'll have a new platform to indulge my passion for the most emotional, colorful and hysterical game ever developed by mankind and Walter Camp.

  Dan Jenkins

  Passion, Emotional, Games

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• The same contingencies of time and space that force a statesman or soldier to make decisions, impel the historian, though with less urgency, to make up his mind.

  Samuel Eliot Morison

  Space, Decision, Soldier

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• I think a Person who is thus terrified with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.

  Joseph Addison

  Thinking, Imagination, Sacred

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.353

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• It must be splendid to command millions of people in great national ventures, to lead a hundred thousand to victory in battle. But it seems to me greater still to discover fundamental truths in a very modest room with very modest means - truths that will still be foundations of human knowledge when the memory of these battles is painstakingly preserved only in the archives of the historian.

  Ludwig Boltzmann

  Memories, Mean, People

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• No, this customary aim of research by excavators is completely foreign to the historical work with which I am occupied... my sole and only aim is to be able to establish a historical fact, on which I disagree with some eminent historians and geographers.

  Heinrich Schliemann

  Historical, Facts, Research

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• I'm not a historian, and I wouldn't want to be. I want to change the world. Attack the elite. Overturn the hierarchy. Look at my stories and you'll notice that the villains are always, always, those in power. The heroes are the little people. I hate the establishment. Always have, always will.

  Terry Deary

  Hate, Hero, People

  "Terry Deary: The man behind the Horrible Histories". Interview with Jon Henley, www.theguardian.com. July 13, 2012.

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• Scholars and historians have dubbed the last 100 years the American Century, and I think there can be little doubt that the Council on Foreign Relations helped to make it so.

  Spencer Abraham

  Thinking, Years, Doubt

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• A Writer says: read what I have written An historian says: listen to my lecture A critic says: listen to what I think A journalist says: let me tell you a story.

  Gideon Haigh

  Wise, Thinking, Stories

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