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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“History is not truth versus falsehoods, but a mixture of both, a mélange of tendencies, reactions, dreams, errors, and power plays. What's important is what we make of it; its moral use. By writing history, we can widen readers' thinking and deepen their sympathies in every direction. Perhaps history should show us not how to control the world, but how to enlarge, deepen, and discipline ourselves.”

Thinking World Should Writing Important Play Use Shows Dream Moral History Reader Discipline Errors Reactions Tendencies Falsehood Versus Mixtures What's Important Writing History Power Play

Book:Heart Mountain

Source: Heart Mountain

“A cultivated reader of history is domesticated in all families; he dines with Pericles, and sups with Titian.”

History Reader Dine

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer.”

Important Difficult History Subjects Reader Various Familiar Roman Empire

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.”

Law Courses History Events Objects Reader Battle Importance Court Curiosity Variety Manners Narrative Intrigue Roman Empire Transient Interruptions Insensible

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude that, if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V2: the History Focus

“The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“That historians should give their own country a break, I grant you; but not so as to state things contrary to fact. For there are plenty of mistakes made by writers out of ignorance, and which any man finds it difficult to avoid. But if we knowingly write what is false, whether for the sake of our country or our friends or just to be pleasant, what difference is there between us and hack writers? Readers should be very attentive to and critical of historians, and they in turn should be constantly on their guard.”

“Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.”

Giving Literature Opportunity History Reader New Opportunity

Author:Carlos Fuentes