#historian

I hope that not only my documentaries, but everybody's documentaries, last. It will really confuse historians in the next century, because they'll have, in addition to all the print material, they'll have all these pictures to look at. ↗

— Frederick Wiseman

#because #century #confuse #documentaries #everybody

So with truth - there is a certain moment when one can say, this is the truth and here I put a dot, a stop, and I go to another thing. A judge has to put an end to a deliberation. But for a historian, there's never an end to the past. It can go on and on and on. ↗

— A. B. Yehoshua

#certain #deliberation #dot #end #go

For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian──ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection that unattainable by the highest art. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#ignorance #art

Oh, my dear Vimes, history changes all the time. It is constantly being re-examined and re-evaluated, otherwise how would we be able to keep historians occupied? We can't possibly allow people with their sort of minds to walk around with time on their hands. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#history #change

The man who first gave history a recognized place in science was an ancient historian. ↗

— James H. Breasted

#first #gave #historian #history #man

God cannot alter the past, though historians can. ↗

— Samuel Butler

#alter #cannot #god #historians #past

Events are moving so fast and what in one moment seems impossible, the next is happening. I'm sure historians will, in time, provide theories and analysis, but for now I think most of us simply want the tide stemmed. ↗

— Lucy Powell

#events #fast #happening #historians #i

But I'm a historian. I wasn't interested in just being a producer, I was interested in doing research and presenting that research to a general public. ↗

— Bernice Johnson Reagon

#doing #general #general public #historian #i

A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've always wanted to and am tired of having my reading assigned.' I thought it was a marvelous declaration of independence. ↗

— Richard Russo

#always #am #ancient #asked #assigned

No, this customary aim of research by excavators is completely foreign to the historical work with which I am occupied... my sole and only aim is to be able to establish a historical fact, on which I disagree with some eminent historians and geographers. ↗

— Heinrich Schliemann

#aim #am #completely #customary #disagree