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Quote by Frederick The Great

“If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.”

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Frederick the Great, full name Frederick William Peter Augustus, was the King of Prussia and a military commander. During his reign, Prussia became one of the strongest powers in Europe. He is known for his military skills, reform spirit, and artistic taste. more

“Actual philosophers... are commanders and law-givers: they say "thus it shall be!", it is they who determine the Wherefore and Whither of mankind, and they possess for this task the preliminary work of all the philosophical laborers, of all those who have subdued the past - they reach for the future with creative hand, and everything that is or has been becomes for them a means, an instrument, a hammer.”

Mean Has Beens Hands Past Law Creative Mankind Tasks Philosophical Instruments Determine Philosopher Hammers Giver Commanders Laborers

Book:Beyond good and evil: prelude to a philosophy of the future

Source: Beyond good and evil: prelude to a philosophy of the future

“Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot.”

World Left Gone Forever Shadow Corners Historian Doomed Chasing Inability Revealing Thorough Around The Corner Completeness Documentation

Author:Simon Schama

“The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies...”

Firsts Duty Historian

Author:James Anthony Froude

“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant.”

People World Giving Two Sometimes Facts Hands Order Events Ordinary Accounts Visible Historian Relevant Provoking Linked Ordinary People Private Life Inner Life

Author:Victor Hugo

“Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.”

Firsts Art Ignorance Highest Perfection Historian Simplify Unattainable Placid

Author:Lytton Strachey

“I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.”

Love Needs Stories Law Simple Common Fantasy Fashion Judging Consequence Excellent Meat Historian Squares Spoil Incline

Book:The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne

Source: The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne

“Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.”

Thinking Men Love Writing May Action Opportunity Simple Ought Hatred Historian Say Anything Simple Truths

Book:Miscellaneous works

Source: Miscellaneous works

“Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.”

Faces Prophet Historian

Author:Friedrich Schiller

“Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.”

Mind Humans Ability Historical Human Mind Historian Composition Penetration

Book:The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

“For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.”

Should Action Past Mother Causes Interest Path Example Ought Hatred Affection Witness Historian Instruction Truthful Precise Rivals Swerve

Author:Miguel de Cervantes

Quote by Frederick The Great

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