Marc Bloch

"Successive technological revolutions have immeasurably widened the psychological gap between generations. With some reason, perhaps, the man of the age of electricity and of the airplane feels himself…"

"Misunderstanding of the present is the inevitable consequence of ignorance of the past. But a man may wear himself out just as fruitlessly in seeking to understand the past, if he is totally ignorant …"

"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."

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

"There is no true understanding without a certain range of comparison."

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

"Marc Bloch has been a source of inspiration...one way to give some indicaion of my reaction to his work is to provide my thoughts in different decades to his work for...he meant something different to…"

"For in the last analysis it is human consciousness which is the subject matter of history."