Quotes from Marc Bloch

Under the influence of the leaders of the colonists an entire new legal system was introduced. About 962, after the victories of the kings of Wessex, one of them, Edgar, declared: "I desire that among the Danes the secular law continue to be regulated according to their good customs.

the shires which Alfred not so long before had been obliged to surrender to the Vikings remained for the most part united till the twelfth century under the common designation of "Danelaw". But the region so named extended well beyond the limits within which the study of place-names reveals intensive Scandinavian settlement.

In a word, a historical phenomenon can never be understood apart from its moment in time. This is true of ever evolutionary stage, our own and all others. As the old Arab proverb has it: 'Men resemble their times more than they do their fathers.

In contrast, historical time is a concrete and living reality with an irreversible onward rush. It is the very plasma in which events are immersed, and the field within which they become intelligible.

I had gone with Henri Pirenne to Stockholm; we had scarcely arrived, when he said to me: 'What shall we go to see first? It seems that there is a new city hall here. Let's start there.' Then, as if to ward of my surprise, he added: 'If I were an antiquarian, I would have eyes only for old stuff, but I am a historian. Therefore, I love life.

Robespierristes, antirobespierristes, nous vous crions grâce: par pitié, dites-nous, simplement, quel fut Robespierre.

Zapewne, gdyby?my nawet uznali, ?e historia do niczego poza tym nie s?u?y, nale?a?oby na jej plus zapisa? to, ?e jest bardzo zajmuj?ca (...).

in a world which stands upon the threshold of the chemistry of the atom, which is only beginning to fathom the mystery of interstellar space ... this poor world of ours which, however justifiably proud of its science, has created so little happiness for itself ...

Les méchants faits détruisent les belles théories.

If men, under pressure of need, did not fear to undertake fairly long journeys (they feared it less, perhaps, than in centuries nearer to our own) they shrank from those repeated comings and goings within a narrow radius which in other civilizations form the texture of daily life; and this was especially so in the case of humble folk of settled occupations. The result was an ordering of the scheme of human relations quite different from anything we know today.