In schoolbooks and in literature we can separate ecclesiastical and political history; in the life of mankind they are intertwined.
Leopold von RankeIt is striking how history, when resting on the memory of men, always touches the bounds of mythology.
Leopold von RankeYou have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was.
Leopold von Ranke