"The ultimate aim of historical writing is the bringing before us the whole truth."

"Ranke has not only written a larger number of mostly excellent books than any man that ever lived, but he has taken p…"

"Universal History would degenerate into mere theory and speculation if it were to desert the firm ground of national …"

"Rigorous presentation of the facts, however conditional and lacking in beauty they may be, is without question the su…"

"To history has been attributed the function to judge the past, to instruct ourselves for the advantage of the future.…"

"You are in the first place a Christian: I am in the first place a historian. There is a gulf between us."

"A collection of national histories, whether on a larger or a smaller scale, is not what we mean by Universal History,…"

"But historical development does not rest on the tendency towards civilisation alone. It arises also from impulses of …"

"Ranke did not stop at concrete description but attempted to pierce the deepest and most mysterious movements of life."

"What one hears in Ranke. The whisper of statecraft. Not the tramp of democracy's earthquake feet. Not the dull roar o…"