“That history should have imitated history was already sufficiently marvellous; that history should imitate literature is inconceivable….”

—  Jorge Luis Borges, book Ficciones

"Theme of the Traitor and Hero"
Ficciones (1944)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "That history should have imitated history was already sufficiently marvellous; that history should imitate literature i…" by Jorge Luis Borges?
Jorge Luis Borges photo
Jorge Luis Borges213
Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

Related quotes

Douglas Hurd photo

“We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.”

Douglas Hurd (1930) British Conservative politician and novelist

Speech in Berlin http://www.kas.de/grossbritannien/en/publications/6555/ (18 April 2005)

Edgar Degas photo

“The museums are here to teach the history of art and something more as well, for, if they stimulate in the weak a desire to imitate, they furnish the strong with the means of their emancipation.”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

posthumous quotes, The Shop-Talk of Edgar Degas', (1961)

William Morris photo

“I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love... It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world?”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

"The History of Pattern-Designing" lecture (1882) The Collected Works of William Morris (1910 - 1915) Vol. 22

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“There was no substitute for reality; one should be aware of imitations.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The Fountains of Paradise

Source: The Fountains of Paradise (1979), Chapter 23 “Moondozer” (p. 129)

“If we truly learn from history, the current reality should not suggest otherwise. It is ironic, because history proves that we have learned nothing.”

Titon Rahmawan

William H. Prescott photo

“The history of literature is the history of the human mind. It is, as compared with other histories, the intellectual as distinguished from the material, the informing spirit as compared with the outward and visible.”

William H. Prescott (1796–1859) American historian and Hispanist

"Chateaubriand's English Literature" (1839), p. 245.
Biographical and Critical Miscellanies

Kurt Vonnegut photo

“I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Palm Sunday

"Self-Interview", originally appeared in The Paris Review no. 69 (1977)
Palm Sunday (1981)

Frederic G. Kenyon photo

“The history of the Bible text is a romance of literature,”

Frederic G. Kenyon (1863–1952) British palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar

Source: The Story Of The Bible, Chapter I, The Bible And Recent Discoveries, p. 4
Context: The history of the Bible text is a romance of literature, though it is a romance of which the consequences are of vital import; and thanks to the succession of discoveries which have been made of late years, we know more about it than of the history of any other ancient book in the world.

Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell photo

“Economic history matters. Students of economics should read Charles MacKay and Charles Kindleberger, and should study the history of the Wall Street Crash as well as the theory and the mathematics required to formalize it.”

Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell (1955) British businessman

Source: Economics after the crisis : objectives and means (2012), Ch. 2 : Financial Markets: Efficiency, Stability, and Income Distribution

Hung Hsiu-chu photo

“People should remember history so they can truly cherish what they have now.”

Hung Hsiu-chu (1948) Taiwanese politician

Hung Hsiu-chu (2015) cited in " Hung dismisses ‘immediate unification’ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/09/13/2003627609" on Taipei Times, 13 September 2015

Related topics