It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in read more

It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.

History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it and wiser than the one read more

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it and wiser than the one that comes after it.

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed read more

I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history.

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the read more

The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the world, the King the word of whose mouth destroys mountains and seas, who by his lordly attack has forced mighty and merciless Kings from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same to acknowledge one supremacy.

History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes.

History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes.

History is the science of things which are not repeated.

History is the science of things which are not repeated.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.