"[I]t is the historian's task to deal with the individual in relation to the community. Furthermore his task is a very different one from that of the novelist. Though the historian cannot do without imagination, he remains tied to the event, to data, to testimonies, and he lacks the omniscience which enables the poet to plumb his characters to the most secret places of their hearts."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Napoleon For and Against (1949), p. 181
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pieter_Geyl
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Pieter Geyl
Pieter Catharinus Arie Geyl (15 December 1887, Dordrecht – 31 December 1966, Utrecht) was a Dutch historian, well known for his studies in early modern Dutch history and in historiography.
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Pieter Geyl →
Related Quotes
"His volume of essays is the most important survey of general historical problems that has appeared for many years... …"
"History can reach no unchallengeable conclusions on so many-sided a character, on a life so dominated, so profoundly …"
"The historian no less than the artist is a creator. Through his selection and interpretation he creates our awareness…"
"In October 1944, just as the Netherlands was being liberated from the Nazis, the great Dutch historian Pieter Geyl co…"
"Wisdom is shot through with a rich humanity... he represents the model towards which we ought to aspire."
"Technology...has become the prime source of material change and so determines the pattern of the total social fabric."
"H. Kern in his book Over het woord Zarathushtra (1867) states, “the Bactrian (i.e. Avestan) is so (greatly) related t…"
"The most explicit mentioning of the Afghans appears in Al- Baruni’s Tarikh Al-Hind (eleventh century AD). Here it is …"
"Our knowledge of these migrations [that broke PIE unity] is very limited. On a linguistic basis, little can be said a…"
"When the IE family had been discovered and scholars sought the land of origin, they initially thought of India becaus…"