Quotes from Leopold von Ranke

Every generation is equidistant from God.

All ages are equidistant from eternity, and just as immediately accessible to God's presence.

History is no criminal court

In schoolbooks and in literature we can separate ecclesiastical and political history; in the life of mankind they are intertwined.

You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was.

It is striking how history, when resting on the memory of men, always touches the bounds of mythology.

It is striking how history, when resting on the memory of men, always touches the bounds of mythology.

All ages are equidistant from eternity, and just as immediately accessible to God's presence.

We see before us a series of events which follow one another and are conditioned by one another. I say 'conditioned' I certainly do not mean conditioned through absolute necessity. The important point is that human freedom makes its appearance everywhere, and the greatest attraction of history lies in the fact that it deals with the scenes of that freedom.

He who overcomes himself is divine. Most see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it.