H. G. Wells Quotes

Accuracy is paramount in every detail of a work of history. Here's my rule: Ask yourself, 'Did this thing happen?' If the answer is yes, then it's historical. Then ask, 'Did this thing happen precisely this way?' If the answer is yes, then it's history; if the answer is no, not precisely this way, then it's historical drama.

History consists of facts attested to by evidence.

Even if people tell me they have historical proof [that it is not historical], that doesn't really bother me.

I have a multivolume history of the world from the 19th century that begins with Noah's flood as though it's as historical a fact as the rise and fall of Rome.

I find it very hard to write about Jewish history.

The historian is, by definition, absolutely incapable of observing the facts which he examines.

You're not a historian, but most historians will tell you that they make very discrete judgment as to what facts to omit in order to make their book into some shape, some length that can be managed.

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

History is only conjecture, and the best historians try to do it as accurately as they can. They try to accurately reassemble the facts and then put them down on paper.

It is the job of the historian to say what is likely, and of faith to say what is possible.

In history, one gathers clues like a detective, tries to present an honest account of what most likely happened, and writes a narrative according to what we know and, where we aren't absolutely sure, what might be most likely to have happened, within the generally accepted rules of evidence and sources.

If you research history, I think we are all Jewish. It's the original culture.

If anyone thinks that Jews can steal into the land of their fathers, he is deceiving either himself or others. Nowhere is the coming of Jews so promptly noted as in the historic home of the Jews, for the very reason that it is the historic home.

No, this customary aim of research by excavators is completely foreign to the historical work with which I am occupied... my sole and only aim is to be able to establish a historical fact, on which I disagree with some eminent historians and geographers.

Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history - revisionist historians is what I like to call them.

The history of the Jews has been written overwhelmingly by scholars of texts - understandably given the formative nature of the Bible and the Talmud. Seeing Jewish history through artifacts, architecture and images is still a young but spectacularly flourishing discipline that's changing the whole story.

I have no fear that the candle lighted in Palestine years ago will ever be put out.

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case.

All history, so far as it is not supported by contemporary evidence, is romance.

The Jews are used to collective eulogies, but the Jews will not die so that the Washington Post will speak well of them.

For thousands of years, we Jews have been nourished and sustained by a yearning for our historic land …. I believed and to this day still believe in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land.

The true historian … reveres the fact rather than any theory.

Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again?

In my DNA, the Zionist gene is extremely strong.

I feel that the Jews have always had a special connection to this part of the world, which in geographical terms was called Palestine for so many centuries.