Alan Taylor Quotes

It would be well if, in studying the past, we could always bear in mind the problems of the present

Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past.

The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.

One must be careful not to prejudge the past.

Party historians go to the past for party purposes; they seek to read into the past the controversies of the present.

The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.

I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.

It is not history, theology or mythology that interest me. It is the fact that history, theology or mythology could have alternative interpretations or explanations. I try to connect the dots between the past and the present.

It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.

The illusion is that most of my work is simply about past events: a point in history and nothing else.

History isn’t just what happened before we came on the scene. We are a part of history..

Ere we can forecast the future we must understand the present and bring a just sense of proportion to our review of the history of the past.

In analyzing history do not be too profound, for often the causes are quite superficial.

Even historians with knowledge of the event, and with the materials before them on which to form a judgment, see but little way into the causes and consequences of the great events in human history.

History is past politics, and politics present history.

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

What happened yesterday affects today; what happens today will affect tomorrow/

You must read history forward and not backward.

Presidents look back seeking both inspiration for the future and sanction for the moment

We should never look down on those of the past and say they should have known better. What do you think they will be saving about us in the future? They’re going to be saying we should have known better.

You simply can't understand the present if you don't understand the past. There is no more alarming case study of the consequences of historical ignorance than President Trump.

There's power in turning to the past to illuminate the current state of things.

History has to be rewritten because history is the selection of those threads of causes or antecedents that we are interested in.

History does not usually make real sense until long afterward.