On the Writing of History by Neltitíca

AQQ

"Young lord and lady students, this illustrates what I have often told you before now. Be skeptical of the many versions of the world's history you are likely to hear, for some are as full of impossible invention as they are of vanity. What is more, I have never met a historian — I have never met any sort of professional scholar who could put into his work the slightest trace of humour or ribaldry or jollity. I have never met one who did not consider his particular subject the most momentous and weighty of all studies. Now, I concede the importance of scholarly works — but need importance always wear the long face of stern solemnity? Historians may be serious men, and history may sometimes be so somber that it saddens. But it is people who make the history, and they often play pranks or cut capers while they are doing it."

Cited in Gary Jennings, Aztec, p. 106.

This is an Archival Quality Quotation. (Lighten up a little!)