Quotes About Perspective

Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost what subject he may.

There have always been readers throughout history who have been drawn to villains.

If history teaches anything, it teaches humility.

There is one thing about knowing history, and another in recreating it.

To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to theory.

A lot of things in history are timing, and it's very peculiar because in retrospect things [and] people can look more brilliant or necessary than they actually were.

I did not say history was bunk. It was bunk to me . . I did not need it very bad.

I beg your pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets.

I just feel like history is very much alive and important and I don't, you know, I can't worry about whether people get it or not, per se.

Beneath every history, another history.

I do myself think that history is a set of skills rather than a narrative.

Part of history is facts. The other part is what we find easier to believe.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.

I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.

History...a release from the troublesome promiscuous present.

Much more than memoir; it's history.

History can be a weapon, and it can be used against you.

In sum, U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi - but neither is it exceptionally less violent.

We cannot help living in history. We can only fail to be aware of it.

History is absolutely my thing.

There's a lot of revisionist history that goes on these days about Iraq.

History is sympathetic to its authors.

One age cannot be completely understood if all the others are not understood. The song of history can only be sung as a whole.

History is not what happened but what is written down