Marc Bloch Quotes

But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding.

The very names we use to describe ancient ideas or vanished forms of social organization would be quite meaningless if we had not known living men.

Thenceforth they thought that, rationally concluded, doubt could become an instrument of knowledge.

Let us guard against stripping our science of its share of poetry.

The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale. He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies.

No doubt they thought that by allowing themselves to become martyrs to their nerves they were giving proof of a fine stoicism, just as by living in a continual rush they produced in their own minds an illusion of activity.

When all is said and done, a single word, “understanding,” is the beacon light of our studies —MARC BLOCH

Para quien no sea un tonto de marca mayor, todas las ciencias son interesantes, pero cada sabio solo encuentra una cuyo cultivo le divierte. Descubrirla para consagrarse a ella es propiamente lo q se llama vocación

No hay menos belleza en una exacta ecuación q en una frase precisa. Pero cada ciencia tiene su propio lenguaje estético

Defender la alegría como una trinchera, defenderla del escándalo y la rutina, de la miseria y los miserables, de las ausencias transitorias y las definitivas

Le doute méthodique est d'ordinaire le signe d'une bonne santé mentale : c'est pourquoi des soldats harassés, au coeur trouble ne pouvaient le pratiquer

Understanding,' in all honesty, is a word pregnant with difficulties, but also with hope.

Detrás de los rasgos sensibles del paisaje, de las herramientas o de las máquinas, detrás de los escritos aparentemente más fríos, y de las instituciones aparentemente más distanciadas de los q las han creado, la historia quiere aprender a los hombres

Similarly, when it is not the past that we are studying, but some set of phenomena relating to a principle still active, we expect to be told whenever a new piece of evidence may emerge, in the light of which it is quite possible that the whole elaborate structure of our conclusions will have to be changed.

When it is a question of ascertaining whether or not some human act has really taken place, [historians] cannot be too painstaking. If they proceed to the reasons for that act, they are content with the merest appearance, ordinarily founded upon one of those maxims of common-place psychology which are neither more nor less true than their opposites.

Papa, explique-moi donc à quoi sert l'histoire?' These are the opening words of Marc Bloch's moving Apologie pour l'histoire, which was cut short when its author was killed by the Nazis. [...]Apparently it has not yet struck anyone that where the myth originated it might also be rendered innocuous through more accurate work in the quarry of books. [...] It would be easy to show that one element of the nazi myth sprang up in the harmless field of comparative philology. The great Max Müller once ventured the guess that all peoples speaking the so-called Indo-Germanic languages might derive from the tribe of Aryans. He soon changed his mind, but the mischief was done, and the ghastly tragedy of those who were idiotically labelled non-Aryans should now suffice to answer the question of Marc Bloch's son.

Somos os vencidos provisórios de um injusto destino.

How pleasant it is', says the Roman poet, 'to listen to a storm from the safe shelter of the shore.

La incomprensión del presente nace fatalmente de la ignorancia del pasado

Under the influence of the leaders of the colonists an entire new legal system was introduced. About 962, after the victories of the kings of Wessex, one of them, Edgar, declared: “I desire that among the Danes the secular law continue to be regulated according to their good customs.

the shires which Alfred not so long before had been obliged to surrender to the Vikings remained for the most part united till the twelfth century under the common designation of “Danelaw”. But the region so named extended well beyond the limits within which the study of place-names reveals intensive Scandinavian settlement.

If men, under pressure of need, did not fear to undertake fairly long journeys (they feared it less, perhaps, than in centuries nearer to our own) they shrank from those repeated comings and goings within a narrow radius which in other civilizations form the texture of daily life; and this was especially so in the case of humble folk of settled occupations. The result was an ordering of the scheme of human relations quite different from anything we know today.

Les méchants faits détruisent les belles théories.

In a word, a historical phenomenon can never be understood apart from its moment in time. This is true of ever evolutionary stage, our own and all others. As the old Arab proverb has it: 'Men resemble their times more than they do their fathers.

I had gone with Henri Pirenne to Stockholm; we had scarcely arrived, when he said to me: 'What shall we go to see first? It seems that there is a new city hall here. Let's start there.' Then, as if to ward of my surprise, he added: 'If I were an antiquarian, I would have eyes only for old stuff, but I am a historian. Therefore, I love life.

In contrast, historical time is a concrete and living reality with an irreversible onward rush. It is the very plasma in which events are immersed, and the field within which they become intelligible.

Escutemos bem Marc Bloch. Ele não diz: a história é uma arte, a história é literatura. Frisa: a história é uma ciência, mas uma ciência que tem como uma de suas características, o que pode significar sua fraqueza mas também sua virtude, ser poética, pois não pode ser reduzida a abstrações, a leis, a estruturas.

Robespierristes, antirobespierristes, nous vous crions grâce: par pitié, dites-nous, simplement, quel fut Robespierre.

¡Es tan fácil gritar: "Al paredón"! No comprendemos nunca bastante. Quien difiere de nosotros, sea extranjero o adversario político, pasa, casi necesariamente, por un ser de malos antecedentes. Aun para conducir las luchas inevitables, sería necesario un poco más de inteligencia en las almas; con más razón para evitarlas, si se está a tiempo. A condición de renunciar a sus falsos aires de arcángel, la historia debe ayudarnos a salir de este mal paso. Es una vasta experiencia de las variedades humanas, un largo encuentro entre los hombres. Tanto la vida como la ciencia tienen el mayor interés en que este encuentro sea fraternal.

... in a world which stands upon the threshold of the chemistry of the atom, which is only beginning to fathom the mystery of interstellar space ... this poor world of ours which, however justifiably proud of its science, has created so little happiness for itself ...

Marc Bloch was born in 1886, fought in World War I,

Zapewne, gdybyśmy nawet uznali, że historia do niczego poza tym nie służy, należałoby na jej plus zapisać to, że jest bardzo zajmująca (...).

Há muito tempo, com efeito, nossos grandes precursores, Michelet, Fustel de Coulanges, nos ensinaram a reconhecer: o objeto da história é, por natureza, o homem. Digamos melhor: os homens. Mais que o singular, favorável à abstração, o plural, que é o modo gramatical da relatividade, convém a uma ciência da diversidade. Por trás dos grandes vestígios sensíveis da paisagem, [os artefatos ou as máquinas,] por trás dos escritos aparentemente mais insípidos e as instituições aparentemente mais desligadas daqueles que as criaram, são os homens que a história quer capturar. Quem não conseguir isso será apenas, no máximo, um serviçal da erudição. Já o bom historiador se parece com o ogro da lenda. Onde fareja carne humana, sabe que ali está sua caça.

Comparez ces deux journaux quasi homonymes : The Times et Le Temps. Les intérêts, dont ils suivent, l’un et l’autre, les ordres, sont de nature semblable ; leurs publics, des deux côtés, aussi éloignés des masses populaires ; leur impartialité, également suspecte. Qui lit le premier, cependant, en saura toujours, sur le monde, tel qu’il est, infiniment plus que les abonnés du second. Même

Un motto, in sintesi, domina e illumina i nostri studi: <>. Non diciamo che il bravo storico è estraneo alle passioni; ha per lo meno quella. Motto, non nascondiamocelo, carico di difficoltà, ma anche di speranze. Soprattutto, motto carico di amicizia. Persino nell'azione, noi giudichiamo troppo. E' comodo gridare <> Non comprendiamo mai abbastanza. Chi è diverso da noi - straniero, avversario politico - passa, quasi necessariamente, per un cattivo. Anche per condurre le lotte che non si possono evitare, un po' più di intelligenza delle anime sarebbe necessaria; a maggior ragione, per evitarle, quando si è ancora in tempo. La storia, purché rinunci alle sue false arie da arcangelo, deve aiutarci a guarire a questo difetto. Essa è una vasta esperienza delle varietà umane, un luogo di incontro fra gli uomini. La vita, come la scienza, ha tutto da guadagnare dal fatto che questo incontro sia fraterno.