Matt Smith Quotes

No history can be a faithful mirror. If it were, it would be as long and as dull as life itself. It must be a selection, and, being a selection, must inevitably be biased.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

History is what we bring to it, not just the events themselves, but how we interpret those events.

Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what actually happened, but of what men believe happened.

Any child knows that history can only be a reduced representation of reality, but it must be a true one, not distorted by queer lenses.

A nation creates itself not just with what it remembers, but with what it forgets.

History is what we would make of it.

A lot of what we think of as history is actually just a version of events which may or may not be true.

The idea that historians aren't affected by what goes on around them I think is slightly fanciful.

Even the most meticulous historians work subjectively. The historian's point of view, his or her selection of subject and sources, the emphasis, the tone - all of these lead to subjective history, inevitably so. I do not say this as a criticism, merely as an observation.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

Creative memory is the historian's most subtle opponent.

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

The study of the past with one eye upon the present is the source of all sins and sophistries in history. It is the essence of what we mean by the word "unhistorical."

History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.

I don't think the revisionist historians are accurate. I think their agendas are clouded by selfishness and anger and rage.

History is an agreed-upon fiction.

All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind.

After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember?

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.

Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes.

Unlike memory, which confirms and reinforces itself, history contributes to the disenchantment of the world.

If the authors and custodians of history turn out to have an attractive image, it is only reasonable to look beyond and ask whether the image they construct is accurate.