A Quote by Napoleon Bonaparte

History is written by the winners.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Quote Topics

History Winners Written

Quote Author

Napoleon Bonaparte
French - Statesman
August 15, 1769 - May 5, 1821

History used to be written by the winners. Now it is distorted and distributed by the winners' media.

Ziad K. Abdelnour

History is not just written by the winners; it's written about them.

Steve Rushin

People say history was written by the winners. No, it wasn't. It was written by the bullies.

Colin Quinn

History is written by winners, so most history books are about people who win.

Harold S. Kushner

There was a time when history was written by a few people, the winners. Now, history is written by all of us all the time... That's the thing we keep telling our 14-year-olds, you know: anything you do right now, it's not going anywhere.

Eric McCormack

History is written by winners.

Alex Haley

History is, as we know, written by the winners.

Rachel Martin

History gets written by the winners.

Cassandra Clare

History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?

Dan Brown

Not only is history written by the winners, it is also made by them.

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza

You know the old saying: "History is written by the winners. And also, the team of hand-picked historians that the winner keeps hidden away in an underground bunker".

John Hodgman

History is written by the winners. My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout.

Ruth Negga

When you say, "History is written by the winners," you like to think about someone who isn't you. You want to think, "Oh, that's the juggernaut I'm standing against." But you're probably part of it.

Daniel Handler

Everyone knows history is written by the winners, but that cliche misses a crucial detail: Over time, the winners are always the progressives. Conservatism can only win in the short term, because society cannot stop evolving (and social evolution inevitably dovetails with the agenda of those who see change as an abstract positive). It might take seventy years, but it always happens eventually. Serious historians are, almost without exception, self-styled progressives. Radical views--even the awful ones--improve with age.

Chuck Klosterman

History is written by the winners. The books say the Indians were bad guys and the whites just needed a little land. It's like, Excuse me, let me take your car. I'm discovering it. I'm putting my flag on your windshield.