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The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn't enter into it.

Even the most meticulous historians work subjectively. The historian's point of view, his or her selection of subject and sources, the emphasis, the tone - all of these lead to subjective history, inevitably so. I do not say this as a criticism, merely as an observation.

I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis.

To solve a problem it is necessary to think. It is necessary to think even to decide what facts to collect.

I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

I don't know if a historian or scholar owns an opinion.

Often the presence of mind and energy of a person remote from the spotlight decide the course of history for centuries to come.

The history of mankind is the history of ideas.

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.