[H]istory is a melodrama on the theme of parasitism, characterized by scenes that are exciting or dull, as the case may be, and many a sudden stagetrick. – Max Nordau, The Interpretation of History

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. – Aristotle

The historian has before him a jigsaw puzzle from which many pieces have disappeared. These gaps can be filled only by his imagination. – Gaetano Salvemini, Historian and Scientist