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Top 15 Edward Hallett Carr Quotes (2025 Update)

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “Study the historian before you begin to study the facts.”

1. “Study the historian before you begin to study the facts.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “Change is certain. Progress is not.”

2. “Change is certain. Progress is not.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.”

3. “The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger’s slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.”

4. “History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger’s slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “The function off the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present.”

5. “The function off the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “I am reminded of Housman’s remark that ‘accuracy is a duty, not a virtue.’ To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential function.”

6. “I am reminded of Housman’s remark that ‘accuracy is a duty, not a virtue.’ To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential function.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “What is history?, our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our own position in time, and forms part of our answer to the broader question, what view we take of the society in which we live.”

7. “What is history?, our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our own position in time, and forms part of our answer to the broader question, what view we take of the society in which we live.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.”

8. “It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “The historian, like any other scientist, is an animal who incessantly asks the question: Why?”

9. “The historian, like any other scientist, is an animal who incessantly asks the question: Why?”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “What distinguishes the historian from the collector of historical facts is generalization.”

10. “What distinguishes the historian from the collector of historical facts is generalization.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “History is preoccupied with fundamental processes of change. If you are allergic to these processes, you abandon history and take cover in the social sciences. Today anthropology, sociology, etc, flourish. History is sick. But then our society too is sick.”

11. “History is preoccupied with fundamental processes of change. If you are allergic to these processes, you abandon history and take cover in the social sciences. Today anthropology, sociology, etc, flourish. History is sick. But then our society too is sick.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “Good historians, I suspect, whether they think about it or not, have the future in their bones. Besides the question: Why? the historian also asks the question: Whither?”

12. “Good historians, I suspect, whether they think about it or not, have the future in their bones. Besides the question: Why? the historian also asks the question: Whither?”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “Progress in human affairs, whether in science or in history or in society, has come mainly through the bold readiness of human beings not to confine themselves to seeking piecemeal improvements in the way things are done, but to present fundamental challenges in the name of reason to the current way of doing things and to the avowed or hidden assumptions on which it rests.”

13. “Progress in human affairs, whether in science or in history or in society, has come mainly through the bold readiness of human beings not to confine themselves to seeking piecemeal improvements in the way things are done, but to present fundamental challenges in the name of reason to the current way of doing things and to the avowed or hidden assumptions on which it rests.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “Good historians... have the future in their bones.”

14. “Good historians... have the future in their bones.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “It is significant that the nationalization of thought has proceded everywhere pari passu with the nationalization of industry.”

15. “It is significant that the nationalization of thought has proceded everywhere pari passu with the nationalization of industry.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr Quote: “The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger’s slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants.”

16. “The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger’s slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants.”

— Edward Hallett Carr

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