Home / Quotes / Quote by Anatole France

Quote by Anatole France

“When a history book contains no lies it is always tedious.”

Quote by Anatole France

Author

Anatole France, a renowned French poet, was born on April 16, 1844, and passed away on October 12, 1924. His poetry has been highly regarded in the French literary world, known for its unique style and profound connotations. more

You May Also Like

“History, like a vast river, propels logs, vegetation, rafts, and debris; it is full of live and dead things, some destined for resurrection; it mingles many waters and holds in solution invisible substances stolen from distant soils.”

Water History Solutions Rivers Invisible Substance Soil Resurrection Destined Stolen Debris Vegetation

Author:Jacques Barzun

“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.”

Men Giving Littles Forget History Generations Track Desert Historian Weary Oasis

Author:J. A. Spender

“[H]istory is a melodrama on the theme of parasitism, characterized by scenes that are exciting or dull, as the case may be, and many a sudden stagetrick.”

May History Cases Scene Exciting Theme Dull Melodrama

Book:The Interpretation of History

Source: The Interpretation of History

“History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders 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?”

Source: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book

“For what is history, but... huge libel on human nature, to which we industriously add page after page, volume after volume, as if we were holding up a monument to the honor, rather than the infamy of our species.”

Ifs Humans History Human Nature Huge Honor Pages Add Species Volume Monument Libel Infamy

Author:Washington Irving

“The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.”

History Middle Meat Historian Spoil

Book:Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c

Source: Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c

“Woe unto the defeated, whom history treads into the dust.”

History Dust Defeated Woe Woe Unto

Book:Darkness at noon

Source: Darkness at noon

“Our history is every human history; a black and gory business, with more scoundrels than wise men at the lead, and more louts than both put together to cheer and follow.”

Men Humans Together Black History Wise Cheer Human History Scoundrels

Author:Philip Wylie

“Histories used often to be stories: the fashion now is to leave out the story. Our histories are stall-fed: the facts are absorbed by the reflexions, as the meat is sometimes by the fat.”

Sometimes Facts Stories Used History Fashion Fats Meat Feds

Book:Guesses at Truth

Source: Guesses at Truth

“A look at the past reminds us of how great is the distance, and how short, over which we have come. The past makes us ask what we have done with us. It makes us ask whether our very achievements are not ironical counterpoint and contrast to our fundamental failures.”

Looks Done Past Asks History Achievement Fundamentals Distance Contrast

Book:A Time to Hear and Answer: Essays for the Bicentennial Season

Source: A Time to Hear and Answer: Essays for the Bicentennial Season