Good History Quotes

• History is life; he who has not lived, or has lived only enough to write a doctoral dissertation, is too inexperienced with life to write good history.

  Louis Moreau Gottschalk

  Writing, History, Enough

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• When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Positive, Religious

  Quoted inWilliam H. Herndon and JesseW.Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (1889)

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• The Gospel is ‘Good News’, not ‘Good History’, because when it’s preached, it happens.

  Reinhard Bonnke

  News, Happens, Good News

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• Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates. It's very embarrassing.

  A. Whitney Brown

  Mistake, Book, Names

  A. Whitney Brown (1991). “The Big Picture: An American Commentary”, Harper Perennial

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• War makes good history but peace is poor reading.

  Thomas Hardy

  Peace, War, Reading

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• The only good histories are those written by those who had command in the events they describe.

  Michel de Montaigne

  History, Events, Command

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• War makes rattling good history.

  Thomas Hardy

  Peace, War, Good War

  The Dynasts pt. 1, act 2, sc. 5 (1904)

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• There's a lot we should be able to learn from history. And yet history proves that we never do. In fact, the main lesson of history is that we never learn the lessons of history. This makes us look so stupid that few people care to read it. They'd rather not be reminded. Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates. It's very embarrassing.

  A. Whitney Brown

  Mistake, Stupid, Book

  A. Whitney Brown (1991). “The Big Picture: An American Commentary”, Harper Perennial

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• The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Writing, Affair, Persons

  Michel de Montaigne (1877). “Selected Essays”, p.48, Courier Corporation

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• A good history covers not only what was done, but the thought that went into the action. You can read the history of a country through its actions.

  Benjamin Hooks

  Country, Government, Done

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• Good writing is almost the concomitant of good history. Literature and history were joined long since by the powers which shaped the human brain; we cannot put them asunder.

  C. V. Wedgwood

  Writing, Long, Brain

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• For almost half a century, Fermilab has occupied center stage as physicists have sought to understand the fundamental structure of the universe. The lab deserves a good history, and I'm happy to say that in this book it has one. The authors present a compelling, nuanced, and richly detailed account of the place from its beginnings to the present.

  James Trefil

  Book, Fundamentals, Half

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• Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Reading, Mind

  Benjamin Franklin (2006). “The Portable Benjamin Franklin”, p.193, Penguin

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• The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.

  James W. Loewen

  Feel Good, Honest, Feels

  James W. Loewen (2013). “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong”, p.111, The New Press

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• Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.

  Ken Burns

  Past, Historical, Survival

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• If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside.

  James Buchan

  Passion, History, Waiting

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