History is the open Bible: we historians are not priests to expound it infallibly: our function is to teach people to read it and to reflect upon it for themselves. G. M. Trevelyan More Quotes by G. M. Trevelyan More Quotes From G. M. Trevelyan Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing. G. M. Trevelyan possible-and-impossible impossible-things waiting Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. G. M. Trevelyan reading teaching education The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow. G. M. Trevelyan passion truth lying Since history has no properly scientific value, its only purpose is educative. And if historians neglect to educate the public, if they fail to interest it intelligently in the past, then all their historical learning is valueless except in so far as it educates themselves. G. M. Trevelyan historical history past I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. G. M. Trevelyan health fitness motivational Every true history must force us to remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future. G. M. Trevelyan real history past What is easy to read has been difficult to write. The labour of writing and rewriting, correcting and recorrecting, is the due exacted by every good book from its author, even if he knows from the beginning exactly what he wants to say. A limpid style is invariably the result of hard labour, and the easily flowing connection of sentence with sentence and paragraph with paragraph has always been won by the sweat of the brow. G. M. Trevelyan sweat writing book One half who graduate from college never read another book. G. M. Trevelyan graduation inspirational funny A little man often cast a long shadow. G. M. Trevelyan shadow men long The best historian is he who combines knowledge of the evidence with the largest intellect, the warmest human sympathy and the highest imaginative powers. G. M. Trevelyan historian intellect evidence And how fascinating history is - the long, variegated pageant of man's still continuing evolution of this strange planet, so much the most interesting of all the myriads of spinners through space. G. M. Trevelyan space men long There is no orthodoxy in walking. It is a land of many paths and no-paths, where every one goes his own and is right. G. M. Trevelyan hiking land journey We are the children of the earth and removed from her our spirit withers. G. M. Trevelyan earth spirit children Village cricket spread fast through the land. In those days before it became scientific, cricket was the best game in the world to watch, with its rapid sequence of amusing incidents, each ball a potential crisis! G. M. Trevelyan summer fun children Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out G. M. Trevelyan politics might people History repeats itself and History never repeats itself are about equally true. G. M. Trevelyan repeating-history history-repeats-itself repeats We are literally children of the earth, and removed from her our spirits wither or run to various forms of insanity. Unless we can refresh ourselves at least by intermittent contact with nature, we grow awry. G. M. Trevelyan running insanity children The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses. G. M. Trevelyan teamwork motivational inspirational After a day's walk everything has twice its usual value. G. M. Trevelyan feet-and-walking hiking usual "History repeats itself" and "History never repeats itself" are about equally true ... We never know enough about the infinitely complex circumstances of any past event to prophesy the future by analogy. G. M. Trevelyan analogies events past
