John Leonard Quotes

The German philosopher Walter Benjamin had the curious notion that we could change the past. For most of us, the past is fixed while the future is open.

Though God cannot alter the past, historians can.

Nothing changes more constantly than the past

Many try to force the past to change.

History is written not only for posterity but by posterity as well.

When you are in the future, the past looks different.

History is always changing.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

The best way to predict the future is to study the past, or prognosticate.

History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.

From depicting the past, so goes the suspicion, it is a short step to glorifying the past.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

A feeling for history is almost an essential for writing and appreciating good science fiction, for sensing the connections between the past and future that run through our present.

I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.

History is a battleground... but it has always been the case. Remembering is a radical act. Choosing what is important and what belongs in the overstuffed metaphorical dustbin of history is of vital importance.

Predicting the future is very difficult. As a historian I have trouble trying to predict the past.

When you revise history, you lose it.

We can neither ignore the history of the past nor create the future.

The now, the here, through which all future plunges into the past.

I don’t like trying to predict the future. I am a historian. I have enough trouble predicting the past.

I only remember the future.

The control of the past depends above all on the training of memory

If we are to move into the future, we must eradicate the past.

One problem with Washington is that we are all historians and not futurists.