#historian

I am not trying to be a historian and a dramatist; I'm a dramatist, a dramatic historian, or one who does a dramatic interpretation of history. ↗

— Oliver Stone

#does #dramatic #dramatist #historian #history

You're not a historian, but most historians will tell you that they make very discrete judgment as to what facts to omit in order to make their book into some shape, some length that can be managed. ↗

— Oliver Stone

#discrete #facts #historian #historians #into

Historians still often see the end of the war as meaning nothing more for Germany than lost territories, lost participation in colonization, and lost assets for the state and individuals. They frequently overlook the most serious loss that Germany suffered. ↗

— Gustav Stresemann

#colonization #end #frequently #germany #historians

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

God cannot alter the past, though historians can. ↗

— Samuel Butler

#alter #cannot #god #historians #past

Historians will likely give Obama credit for steering the country away from the brink of economic collapse in 2009. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#brink #collapse #country #credit #economic

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

— Lytton Strachey

#clarifies #first #highest #historian #ignorance

Recent fads in history and biography have increasingly exalted the aridity of chronology and fact, and have, with some valid reason, rejected romanticizing and the presumption of guessing at the inner thoughts of historical figures. Unfortunately, the result has largely been not to demythologize the past, but merely to dehumanize and depersonalize it. As Roger Mudd has pointed out, 'Too many of today's historians [and biographers] ... seem to have forgotten that the writing of history is a literary art. ↗

— Markham Shaw Pyle

#history #writing #art

Visiting the past is something like visiting a foreign country: they do some things the same and some things differently, but above all else, they make us more aware of what we call 'home. ↗

— John Arnold

#dangerous-games #home

The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that. ↗

— Antony Beevor

#duty #historian #more #simply #than