Famous quotes by Historians

"We must also be permitted to bear in mind that evolution, though it may explain everything else, cannot explain itself"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"But if anyone supposes that there was no commercial fraud in the Middle Ages, let him study the commercial legislation of England for that period, and his mind will be satisfied, if he has a mind to be satisfied and not only a fancy to run away with him"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The Romans, we are told, were by nature a peculiarly warlike race"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"It is needless to say how great has been the influence of the doctrine of Evolution, or rather perhaps of the method of investigation to which it has given birth, upon the study of history, especially the history of institutions"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Yet for my part, deeply as I am moved by the religious architecture of the Middle Ages, I cannot honestly say that I ever felt the slightest emotion in any modern Gothic church"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Who can doubt that between the English and the French, between the Scotch and the Irish, there are differences of character which have profoundly affected and still affect the course of history?"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The Roman legions were formed in the first instance of citizen soldiers, who yet had been made to submit to a rigid discipline, and to feel that in that submission lay their strength"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Rome was great in arms, in government, in law"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"If it were a real effort to live in the Middle Ages, your life would be one perpetual prevarication"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"America is supposed to be given over to ugliness. There are a good many ugly things there and the ugliest are the most pretentious"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Above all nations is humanity"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The natural barriers between England and Scotland were not sufficient to prevent the extension of the Saxon settlements and kingdoms across the border"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"It is evident that in the period designated as that of the kings, when Rome commenced her career of conquest, she was, for that time and country, a great and wealthy city"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Whatever things may have been in their origin, they are what they are, both in themselves and in regard to their indications respecting other beings or influences the existence of which may be implied in theirs"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"That Rome was comparatively great and wealthy is certain"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Dante himself is open to the suspicion of partiality: it is said, not without apparent ground, that he puts into hell all the enemies of the political cause, which, in his eyes, was that of Italy and God"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Art is expression, and to have high expression you must have something high to express"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"There is a spell in mediaeval Art which has had power to bewitch some people into trying, or wishing to try, or fancying that they wish to try, or making believe to fancy that they wish to try, to bring back the Middle Ages"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"Never had there been such an attempt to make conquest the servant of civilization. About keeping India there is no question. England has a real duty there"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"I heard Thackeray thank Heaven for the purity of Dickens. I thanked Heaven for the purity of a greater than Dickens - Thackeray himself"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"As to London, we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old, inwardly its poetry is much deeper"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The novelist must ground his work in faithful study of human nature"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"No student of history can fail to see the moral interest of the Middle Ages, any more than an artist can fail to see their aesthetic interest"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"The ABC of our profession is to avoid these large abstract terms in order to try to discover behind them the only concrete realities, which are human beings"

Marc Bloch, Historian

"We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness"

Thucydides, Historian

"We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them"

Thucydides, Historian

"Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved"

Thucydides, Historian

"Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought"

Thucydides, Historian

"Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore, do not take lightly the perils of war"

Thucydides, Historian

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