William Godwin Quotes

I don't think you learn specific lessons from history, but you do learn proportion.

It's hard to understand a moment in history when you are in it.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

A good history covers not only what was done, but the thought that went into the action. You can read the history of a country through its actions.

Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present.

History, in illuminating the past, illuminates the present, and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.

An historian should yield himself to his subject, become immersed in the place and period of his choice, standing apart from it now and then for a fresh view.

A good history covers not only what was done, but the thought that went into the action. You can read the history of a country through its actions.

We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.

The best prophet of the future is the past.

But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding.

Now, whenever you read any historical document, you always evaluate it in light of the historical context.

You can't say history teaches us this or that; it gives us more questions than answers, and many answers to every question.

Learning from the past helps to ensure that mistakes are not repeated.

I study history in order to give an interpretation.

A key goal for an author of history is to persuade his or her readers to forget what they know and to relive the world as it unfolded for characters of the time - with outcomes uncertain.

The historian must walk a fine line between scientific detachment and humanistic engagement.

Our interest in history always reflects our own times.

The only reason to keep talking about history is if you are juxtaposing it with the world that we live in today, if you are learning something about our world by looking at the way they shaped their world.

I think what we should do as historians is understand. And we can have our own views about how things turned out, but I think, in making judgements, we're getting into tricky territory.

Many scholars have complained of our tendency to see history only in conflicts, but I am not convinced they are right. It is in conflict that our values are exposed.

To understand history,' Chacko said, 'we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.

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

Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul.

All history must be mobilized if one would understand the present.