History is something that happens to other people. Anonymous

To know the truth of history is to realize its ultimate myth and its inevitable ambiguity. Roy P. Basler

[A] ny fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it. Oscar Wilde

Do not applaud me. It is not I who speaks to you, but history which speaks through my mouth. Fustel de Coulanges

History must be written of, by and for the survivors. Anonymous

History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions. Voltaire

The history of states and nations has provided some income for historiographers and book dealers, but I know no other purpose it may have served. Borne

Clio, the muse of history, is as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis. Schopenhauer

History, history! We fools, what do we know or care. William Carlos Williams

History is now strictly organized, powerfully disciplined, but it possesses only a modest educational value and even less conscious social purpose. J. H. Plumb

[History] may be called, more generally still, the Message, verbal or written, which all Mankind delivers to everyman. Thomas Carlyle

History is a science, no more and no less. J. B. Bury

The past is always a rebuke to the present. Robert Penn Warren

A country without a memory is a country of madmen. George Santayana

History is interim reports issued periodically. Anonymous

Imagination plays too important a role in the writing of history, and what is imagination but the projection of the author's personality. Pieter Geyl

History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning.  Lord Bolingbroke

History teaches everything including the future. Lamartine

If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development. Aristotle

With the historian it is an article of faith that knowledge of the past is a key to understanding the present. Kenneth Stampp