Marc Bloch: Quotes about understanding

Marc Bloch was French historian, medievalist, and historiographer. Explore interesting quotes on understanding.
Marc Bloch: 18   quotes 6   likes

“Misunderstanding of the present is the inevitable consequence of ignorance of the past. But a man may wear himself out just as fruitlessly in seeking to understand the past, if he is totally ignorant of the present…This faculty of understanding the living is, in very truth, the master quality of the historian.”

Marc Bloch

The Historian's Craft, pg.43

Truth , Understanding , Past

“Marc Bloch has been a source of inspiration…one way to give some indicaion of my reaction to his work is to provide my thoughts in different decades to his work for…he meant something different to me in different phases of my work and my understanding of what he was saying has shifted considerably.”

Marc Bloch

Alan Macfarlane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Macfarlane|, Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_College,_Cambridge.
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Way , Understanding

“But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavour toward better understanding.”

Marc Bloch
History , Understanding