18 Quotes by Julian Barnes about history





  • Author Julian Barnes
  • Quote

    What had Old Joe Hunt answered when I knowingly claimed that history was the lies of the victors? “As long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated.” Do we remember that enough when it comes to our private lives?

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  • Author Julian Barnes
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    History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.

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  • Author Julian Barnes
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    Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time's malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing--until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return.

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  • Author Julian Barnes
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    History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

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