I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other.
Abraham LincolnRead
History is not history unless it is the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
History must be based on truth to be considered valid and meaningful.
Abraham Lincoln's quote highlights the essential relationship between truth and history. It suggests that for historical events to be authentic and recognized as history, they must be rooted in truth; otherwise, they simply become fabrications or misconceptions that fail to convey the reality of past events.
Themes
HistoryTruthAuthenticityRealityUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a history lecture to emphasize the importance of factual accuracy.
More from Abraham Lincoln
All quotes βSir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
Abraham LincolnRead
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham LincolnRead
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
Abraham LincolnRead
For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.
Abraham LincolnRead
And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.
Abraham LincolnRead
Similar quotes
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
Bob WoodwardRead
For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.
Miguel De CervantesRead
Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together!
Mark TwainRead
I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.
Thomas JeffersonRead
It takes a willful disregard of history to appreciate how white Southerners could look at the Confederate battle flag and see states' rights or a way of life or a tradition - and not one human being whipping another, which was a common occurrence.
Richard CohenRead
I think what we should do as historians is understand. And we can have our own views about how things turned out, but I think, in making judgements, we're getting into tricky territory.
Margaret MacmillanRead