Gerald W. Johnson Quotes

Most national holidays in most countries rest on selective memories of the past.

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

Historical mythmaking is made possible only by forgetting.

History will only ever be partial, to a large extent history tells us what we think should be remembered and what should be forgotten, I find that really problematic.

When we work with history, to a very great degree we are all guessing. But by using motifs of time and history in a fantasy setting, we are acknowledging that this educated guesswork, invention, fantasy underlie our treatment of the past and its peoples - and we are not claiming a right to do with them as we will.

The power of historical fiction for bad and for good can be immense in shaping consciousness of the past.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

People don't know the past, even though we live in literate societies, because they don't trust the sources of the past.

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

Why does the past seem so magical, so fraught, so luminous? At the time it was just, ugh, another boring bloody day. But, to look back on, it's a day full of miracles and light and extraordinary events. Why is this? What process do we apply to the past, to give it this vividness? I don't know.

'Mad Men' doesn't capture one single thing about the decor, costumes, or sexual interaction. It is a total projection of contemporary snarky attitudes into the past.

Ever since childhood, I've been interested in history and myth. Not just the facts and figures of the past, but everything that contributes to shape our perception of an age: architecture, art, literature and so forth.

I do think the past changes at a slower rate. It sits a little more still for its portrait.

The past could liberate or imprison - it creates a nation's character, provides the nourishment or the poison a people imbibe in their very marrow.

The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness.

History is, of course, a made thing. It does not exist by itself in anything like a recognizable form.

I think there's something inherently dishonest in trying to go back and mess with the past.

Never underestimate how history injects itself into the present.

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

Nothing changes more constantly than the past

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

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

History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.

People bang on all the time about whether what I've done is the truth or not. Well, to me, history is just a series of elaborate fictions.

Writing plays fast and loose with the past.