A Quote by Edna O'Brien

History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

Edna O'Brien

Quote Topics

Bystanders Contrast Fiction History Injured Largely Said Victors Work Written

Quote Author

Edna O'Brien
Irish - Novelist
Born: December 15, 1932

History is written by the victors--and when there is no victors, it all winds up in the corporate shredders.

Neal Shusterman

History is written by the victors. The victors in daily life tend to be those who live longest.

David Hepworth

History is almost always written by the victors and conquerors and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victors' version is given prominence and holds the field.

Jawaharlal Nehru

In the past, history was always written by the victors. But in the age of Twitter, history is written by everyone.

Nick Bilton

The so-called lessons of history are for the most part the rationalizations of the victors. History is written by the survivors.

Max Lerner

The written history of the world is largely a history of warfare, because the states within which we live came into existence largely through conquest, civil strife, or struggles for independence.

John Keegan

History is written by the victors.

Winston Churchill

History is written by the victors, but it's victims who write the memoirs.

Carol Tavris

I think increasingly we want to read the history that wasn't written by the victors.

Kate Williams

History is written by victors and, occasionally, sensationalist journalists. I mean that with the best respect.

Ray Stevenson

I believe that history is written by the victors, but what about the vanquished? They also have a story to tell.

Puneet Issar

I think a lot of Civil War stuff is written - As they say, history is written by the victors. And one of the things that I think is fascinating about this from a purely dramatic perspective is whether someone is right or wrong, you understand where they're coming from in this.

Josh Radnor

It has been said, "History is written by the victors." I take this to mean we can make ourselves victorious by writing, and then rewriting our own stories. In a country and culture so dominated by media, by the manipulation of words and stories, telling the tales of people whose stories historically have not been told is a radical act and I believe an act that can change the world and help rewrite history.