“Happy the people whose annals are blank in history books!”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Life of Frederick the Great, Bk. XVI, ch. 1.
1860s
The quote "History is a novel whose author is the people." is famous quote attributed to Alfred De Vigny (1797–1863), French poet, playwright, and novelist.
L'histoire est un roman dont le peuple est l'auteur.
"Réflexions sur la vérité dans l'art", p. 6; translation from James H. Johnson Listening in Paris (1995) p. 252.
Cinq-Mars; ou, une conjuration sous Louis XIII (1826)
“Happy the people whose annals are blank in history books!”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Life of Frederick the Great, Bk. XVI, ch. 1.
1860s
Hayden White (1928–2018) American historian
"The fictions of factual representation"
“Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances”
Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War
“History has no more validity than a novel.”
David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon
Revolution by Number
Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913) British writer, photographer and historian
Martin Seymour-Smith Guide to Modern World Literature (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975) vol. 1, pp. 302-3.
Criticism
Alija Izetbegović (1925–2003) Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Source: The Islamic Declaration (1970), p. 42.
“History is sympathetic to its authors.”
John McAfee (1945) American computer programmer and businessman
Into the Heart of Truth (2001)