E. P. Thompson Quotes

The voice of history is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery.

History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.

The contemporary historian never writes such a true history as the historian of a later generation.

The impartiality of history is not that of the mirror, which merely reflects objects, but of the judge, who sees, listens, and decides.

As a historian I understand how histories are written. My enemies will write histories that dismiss me and prove I was unimportant. My friends will write histories that glorify me and prove I was more important than I was. And two generations or three from now, some serious sober historian will write a history that sort of implies I was whoever I was.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product.

Modern history is like a deaf person who is in the habit of answering questions that no one has put to them.

The dignity of history consists in reciting events with truth and accuracy, and in presenting human agents and their actions in an interesting and instructive form. The first element in history, therefore, is truthfulness; and this truthfulness must be displayed in a concrete form.

Whoever writes on world history, but not as a forensic history, becomes thereby an accomplice.

No two historians offer precisely the same reading of an historical event; if we did, far fewer articles and books would be published.

History must always be taken with a grain of salt. It is, after all, not a science but an art.

History is the most dangerous product evolved from the chemistry of the intellect. ...History will justify anything. It teaches precisely nothing, for it contains everything and furnishes examples of everything.

History must speak for itself. A historian is content if he has been able to shed more light.

History may never have all the facts, but history always has the last word.

The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.

From the very beginning, history wasn't content simply to be nostalgic fairytales; it wanted to make you think.

Leave history to historians.

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.

Whatever can be noted historically can be found within history.

I should add that it is open to debate whether what we call the writing of history these days is truly scientific.

History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

Well goodness knows, goodness knows what historians will write.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

In any case, his judgment and set of values, acting alone or through his assistants, determine not only what is gold and what is dross but the design of the history which he creates out of the metal. The historian decides what is significant, and what is not.