Quote by Lucien Febvre

"The past cannot be possessed, only understood; and understanding is always partial and provisional."

Lucien Febvre
Historian French 1878–1956

More from Lucien Febvre

"History is not the past. It is the present and the future too."
"To be a historian is to be a man committed to truth."
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
"Understanding the past requires imagination as much as scholarship."

All quotes by Lucien Febvre