5.) Sing, goddess, the Anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus/ and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,/ hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong sould/ of heroes,/ but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting/ of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished/ since that time when first there stood in conflict/ Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.

Homer, Iliad (tr. Lattimore), I.1-7

6.) The historian performs an essentially poetic act, in which he prefigures the historical field and constitutes it as a domain upon which to bring to bear the specific theories he will use to explain "what was really happening."

Hadyn White, Metahistory, ix-x

7.) Of the Pelasgian language I cannot speak with certainty, but that it was not Greek may be inferred from the language of those of Pelasgian race now living in Creston above the Tyrrhenians. (I.57)

8.) That is the story as the Corinthians and the Lesbians tell it. There is, moreover, at Taenarum today an offering of Arion’s in the temple, a small bronze figure of a man on a dolphin. (I.24)

9.) Concerning the sources of the Nile, nobody I have spoken with, Egyptian, Libyan or Greek, professed to have any knowledge, except the scribe who kept the register of the treasures of Athene in the Egyptian city of Sais. But even this person, though he pretended to exact knowledge, seemed to me hardly serious. (II.28)

10.) The third theory is much the most plausible, but at the same time furthest from the truth; according to this, the water of the Nile comes from melting snow, but as it flows from Libya through Ethiopia into Egypt, that is, from a very hot into a cooler climate, how could it possible originate in snow. Obviously, this view is as worthless as the other two. (II.22)

11.) Anyone may believe these Egyptian tales, if he is sufficiently credulous; as for myself, I keep to the general plan of the book, which is to record the traditions of the various nations just as I heard them related to me. (II.123)

12.) My business is to record what people say, but I am by no means bound to believe it–and that may be taken to apply to this book as a whole. (VII.152)

13.) [For Herodotus] eyewitness or autopsy is the most certain way to knowledge; where this is unavailable, one has recourse to oral report, preferably of eyewitnesses…if [direct] inquiry is not possible, one may use conjecture and subject the account to the test of probability. Where certainty is impossible…one can attempt to disentangle the conflicting strands, but very often one can do no more than state what each side says.

John Marincola, Authority and Tradition, 67

14.) On this subject I could get no further information from anybody. As far as Elephantine I speak as an eyewitness, but further south from hearsay. (II.29)

15.) [E]ven those texts or archaeological documents which seem the clearest and most accommodating will speak only when they are properly questioned. … In other words, every historical research supposes that the inquiry has a direction at the very first step. In the beginning, there must be the guiding spirit. Mere passive observation, even supposing such a thing were possible, has never contributed anything productive to science.

Bloch, Historian’s Craft, 64-5

16.) I could, if I wished, give three versions of Cyrus’ history, all different from what follows; but I propose to base my account on those Persian authorities who seem to tell the simple truth about him without trying to exaggerate his exploits. (I.95)

17.) So much for what Persians and Phoenicians say; and I have no intention of passing judgement on its truth or falsity. I prefer to rely on my own knowledge, and to point out who it was in actual fact that first injured the Greeks; then I will proceed with my history, telling the story as I go along of small cities of men no less than of great. For most of those which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time. Knowing, therefore, that human prosperity never abides long in the same place, I shall pay attention to both alike. (I.5)

18.) (On the Persians) Themselves they consider in every way superior to everyone else in the world, and allow other nations a share of good qualities decreasing according to distance, the furthest off being in their view the worst. (I.134)

19.) No race is so ready to adopt foreign ways as the Persian; for instance, they wear the Median costume because they think it handsomer than their own, and their soldiers wear the Egyptian corslet. (I.135)