Historical Bias Quotes

There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

Do we really know what the past was, what actually happened, or is history “a fable” not quite “agreed upon”? Our knowledge of any past event is always incomplete, probably inaccurate, beclouded by ambivalent evidence and biased historians, and perhaps distorted by our own patriotic or religious partisanship. “Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.”

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.

The Irish hate our order, our civilization, our enterprising industry, our pure religion. This wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain, and superstitious race have no sympathy with the English character …. Their history describes an unbroken circle of bigotry and blood.

Oh do not read history, for that I know must be false.

If you are an Arabic-speaking, Greek-Orthodox going to a French school it makes you deeply sceptical if you have to listen to three different accounts of the Crusades - one from the Muslim side, one from the Greek side and one from the Catholic side.

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

False history gets written every day.

History is the lies of the victors.

History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.

They [the American colonists] are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

History is almost always written by the victors and conquerors and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victors' version is given prominence and holds the field.

History, sir, will tell lies as usual.

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down.

Devils are worse than Indians.

Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes.

I find that the history books that we teach our kids with are not fully truthful, in my opinion.

Historians relate not so much what is done as what they would have believed.

History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. ...What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and efficacious in the march of events, and harmonies are turned into causes. Kings and generals are endowed with motives appropriate to what the historian values in their actions; plans are imputed to them prophetic of their actual achievements, while the thoughts that really preoccupied them remain buried in absolute oblivion.

As a historian I understand how histories are written. My enemies will write histories that dismiss me and prove I was unimportant. My friends will write histories that glorify me and prove I was more important than I was. And two generations or three from now, some serious sober historian will write a history that sort of implies I was whoever I was.

History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.

It is too often forgotten that when the Europeans gained enough maritime skills and gunpowder to conquer most of the world, they not only colonized the bulk of the world's people but they colonized the interpretation of history itself. Human history was rewritten to favor them at the expense of other people. The roots of modern racism can be traced to this conquest and colonization.

Historians write favorably, you know, for example, about Stalin because he was doing big things.