Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Read biographies instead of general history because they show real life without abstract theory.
In plain terms
Read stories about real lives instead of dry history.
What can you take from it?
Choose biography over abstract history.

Where it applies

  • researching past figures
  • studying historical context
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • read memoirs
  • study individual lives
  • avoid purely theoretical texts

Questions to consider

  • Is history without theory more useful?
  • Why focus on biography?

Another view

General history provides context that biography might miss.

More from Benjamin Disraeli

  1. Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.

    Permalink to quote #105
  2. Amusement to an observing mind is study.

    Permalink to quote #107
  3. A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the co…

    Permalink to quote #104

Related quotes

  1. There is properly no history; only biography.

    Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson quote #77
  2. We live, but a world has passed away With the years that perished to make us men.

    William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells quote #1
  3. A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.

    Leo BuscagliaLeo Buscaglia quote #1