“Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.”

“History is the essence of innumerable biographies.”

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

“History is the biography of the human race.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

“There is properly no history; only biography.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”

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

“It is often said that one has but one life to live, but that is nonsense. For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

“unloved women have no biographies-- they have histories”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

“Experience by itself teaches nothing…Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence without theory there is no learning.”

W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) American professor, author, and consultant

“Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer