“What would become of history, had we not a dependence on the veracity of the historian, according to the experience, what we have had of mankind?”

— David Hume , book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

§ 8.18
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

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 "What would become of history, had we not a dependence on the veracity of the historian, according to the experience, wh…" by David Hume?

David Hume 138

Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian 1711–1776

Related quotes

“The introduction of the Christian religion into the world has produced an incalculable change in history. There had previously been only a history of nations — there is now a history of mankind; and the idea of an education of human nature as a whole, — an education the work of Jesus Christ Himself — is become like a compass for the historian, the key of history, and the hope of nations.”

Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794–1872) Swiss historian

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.

“If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On the Pleasure of Hating"
The Plain Speaker (1826)

“The history of Acadians has never been written down as see by its people. Its been written by historians from outside. These historians sometimes had reason not to write the truth or didn't know the truth or didn't know the small things which become the big things, the inside story, what we in France call la petit histoire. History is made by the kings and lords, But la petit histoire is made by the people.”

Antonine Maillet (1929) Canadian writer and scholar

Antonine Maillet, Acadian author quoted by Isabel Vincent in the Toronto Globe and Mail, June 24, 1989. Source: Dictionary of Canadian Quotations by Robert Columbo. (Toronto: Stoddart, 1991) p. 3

“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

“We cannot forget what had happened and history should not repeat itself.”

Ba Jin (1904–2005) Chinese novelist

As quoted in Pioneers of Modern China : Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese (2005) by Khoon Choy Lee
Context: Nobody would say the cowshed was heaven and nobody would say the inhuman torture of so many victims be called a revolution of the proletariat. … A museum should be established to remind China of the follies and disasters that had fallen from 1966 to 1976. We cannot forget what had happened and history should not repeat itself.