Writing history Quotes

“[While writing history], I've kept the most interesting company imaginable with people long gone. Some I've come to know better than many I know in real life, since in real life we don't get to read other people's mail.”

“I do not start with a full knowledge of the facts; the whole attraction of writing history is to educate myself: it is an exploration into the unknown - 'a journey without maps,' to borrow Graham Greene's phrase.”

“We’re constantly changing facts, rewriting history to make things easier, to make them fit in with our preferred version of events. We do it automatically. We invent memories. Without thinking. If we tell ourselves something happened often enough we start to believe it, and then we can actually remember it.”

“I feel like I'm too busy writing history to read it.”

“It is like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

“Many of the people God used in Scripture looked like losers before they looked like winners. After the disciples fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus told them, ‘…Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men’ (Luke 5:10 NKJV). They did, and they ended up: a) building a church that’s still thriving two thousand years later; b) writing history’s greatest books; c) having our sons named after them. Does that mean you can just dream a dream and God will fulfil it? No. Paul says, ‘…You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God…’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV).”

“Although distortion of the past is widespread, the most common travesty is one of omission, wherein populist leaders neglect to mention the crimes committed by their own side or recollect them in such a way that evades accepting full responsibility. That politicians are so able to evoke historical arguments in these ways results from a prior failure of the society to engage in a full and frank encounter with past wrongdoings.”