Niccolò Machiavelli on history

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But this must happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first is excellent, the second good, and the third useless.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes.

Adolf Hitler1889–1945

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

Harry S. Truman1884–1972