John Morris Roberts

“Every historical event is a unique conjunction of forces.”

“The study of history is a personal pursuit. In the end, we're all that's left of the past.”

“Change is the one constant in history.”

“Civilization is an enterprise which is by its nature precarious.”

“Europe has always been a continent of nations. Any attempt to superimpose a single identity upon it has always failed.”

“Nationalism is the most successful of all the new religions of the modern world.”

“What men and women seek is not the objective truth of history, but a past they can live with.”

“The future is unknowable, but the past should give us a guide.”

“We are all prisoners of our own time, but the study of history can provide a key to unlock the cell.”

“The real past is irrecoverable. The best we can do is to create a story, a narrative, that is as faithful as possible to the fragments of evidence we have.”

“The greatest engine of change in the modern world has been the ideology of nationalism.”