Norman Davies quotes

Norman Davies is a British historian renowned for his extensive works on European and Polish history. His research has offered new perspectives on the complexities of Europe's past. He is acclaimed for books such as "Europe: A History" and "God's Playground." Here are 63 of his quotes:

It's the historian's job not to ridicule the myths, but to show the difference between myth and reality.

Norman Davies

History must give the Poles the principal credit for bringing the Soviet bloc to its knees.

Norman Davies

The most noticeable thing about the Soviet collapse was that it followed a natural course.

Norman Davies

I first heard of General Anders and his army more than 50 years ago. I admired him then, and I admire him still; and I feel a special bond with the men, women and children whom he rescued from hunger, disease, and official abuse. Theirs is a story of endurance and fortitude that gives one faith in the human spirit.

Norman Davies

In 1945, when the Second World War technically ends in Poland, the incoming Soviet army liberates some groups of people but begins to oppress the general population, in some ways more harshly than it had happened before.

Norman Davies

Nowadays, it is no longer possible to maintain that the Nazi-Soviet pact of 23 August 1939 was a fiction invented by bourgeois-imperialist enemies. Everyone has seen the film clips of Herr Ribbentrop landing in Moscow, and of Stalin smiling broadly as Ribbentrop and Molotov signed up side by side.

Norman Davies

I find myself sick to death, tired of arguing about details with people who don't know basic facts.

Norman Davies

One of the few things that can be said for certain about Europe's prehistoric peoples is that they all came from somewhere else.

Norman Davies

I happen to belong to that group opinion which holds the break-up of the United Kingdom to be imminent.

Norman Davies

The historical profession is nowhere famous for its tolerance, but there are not many countries where historians can expect to pay for their opinions with penal servitude or the firing squad.

Norman Davies

Fifty years would seem to be time enough to prepare a definitive history of the Second World War. In an age of instant data-gathering, one might think that the historians could have arrived at a consensus for interpreting the main events of the war. In reality, no such consensus exists.

Norman Davies

Transience is one of the fundamental characteristics both of the human condition and of the political order.

Norman Davies

The question is whether a confident Europe will be a rival for North America - or whether they will work together and become a more unified bloc.

Norman Davies

Historical change is like an avalanche. The starting point is a snow-covered mountainside that looks solid. All changes take place under the surface and are rather invisible.

Norman Davies

At the end of the Roman Empire, in the Byzantine period, the empire shrinks and shrinks until it consists of one city, Constantinople, and the Ottoman Turks can encircle it.

Norman Davies

Bulgaria was the only Axis country to deflect insistent German demands for the deportation of its Jews.

Norman Davies

Serenity is the balance between good and bad, life and death, horrors and pleasures. Life is, as it were, defined by death. If there wasn't death of things, then there wouldn't be any life to celebrate.

Norman Davies

In the years of the Red Terror that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, the voice of dissent was stifled by universal denunciations, house searches, and preventive arrests.

Norman Davies

The one certainly for anyone in the path of an avalanche is this: standing still is not an option.

Norman Davies

Each side tries to legitimize their aims by appealing to history, sometimes selectively choosing episodes and other times just by inventing history.

Norman Davies

It was in the 20th century that national sovereignty really ruled the roost, and the E.U. was formed to cure that.

Norman Davies

Northern Ireland must, in future, be absorbed into the Irish republic. Wales and Scotland must advance from devolution to full independent status. The four nations of these islands must commit themselves absolutely to the project of a United Europe.

Norman Davies