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" I have nothing revolutionary or even novel to offer. "

Samuel E. Morison

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" If a lecturer, he wishes to be heard; if a writer, to be read. He always hopes for a public beyond that of the long-suffering wife. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Yet enthusiasm is no excuse for the historian going off balance. He should remind the reader that outcomes were neither inevitable nor foreordained, but subject to a thousand changes and chances. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Throughout this evolution from left to right, Beard always detested war. Hence his writings were slanted to show that the military side of history was insignificant or a mere reflection of economic forces. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis. "

Samuel E. Morison

" The same contingencies of time and space that force a statesman or soldier to make decisions, impel the historian, though with less urgency, to make up his mind. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Intellectual honesty is the quality that the public in free countries always has expected of historians; much more than that it does not expect, nor often get. "

Samuel E. Morison

" So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it is all coming out. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Every historian with professional standards speaks or writes what he believes to be true. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Everyone agrees to that; but when we come to define truth, dissension starts. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Any child knows that history can only be a reduced representation of reality, but it must be a true one, not distorted by queer lenses. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Courses on historical methodology are not worth the time that they take up. I shall never give one myself, and I have observed that many of my colleagues who do give such courses refrain from exemplifying their methods by writing anything. "

Samuel E. Morison

" With honesty of purpose, balance, a respect for tradition, courage, and, above all, a philosophy of life, any young person who embraces the historical profession will find it rich in rewards and durable in satisfaction. "

Samuel E. Morison

" Historical methodology, as I see it, is a product of common sense applied to circumstances. "

Samuel E. Morison