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Quotes about history

176 quotes from 130 people

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Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.
Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822Ozymandias (1818)In context
- Time
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair
Charles Dickens1812–1870A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Book the First: Recalled to Life, Chapter IIn context
- Hope
Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Charles Dickens1812–1870A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter XVIn context
- Power
The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
George Eliot1819–1880Middlemarch (1871–1872), FinaleIn context
- Virtue
“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIn context
Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIn context
- Nature
But it’s no use, says he. Force, hatred, history, all that. That’s not life for men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody knows that it’s the very opposite of that that is really life.
—What? says Alf.
—Love, says Bloom. I mean the opposite of hatred.
James Joyce1882–1941Ulysses (1922), Part II, Episode 12 (3 of 3)In context
- Love
“People come⁠—they stay for a while, they flourish, they build⁠—and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I’ve been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.”
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IVIn context
- Animals
- Time
On the face of this aged queen of our cathedrals, by the side of a wrinkle, one always finds a scar. Tempus edax, homo edacior; which I should be glad to translate thus: time is blind, man is stupid.
Victor Hugo1802–1885The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Book Third, Chapter IIn context
- Time
Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.
Hermann Hesse1877–1962Steppenwolf (1927), PrefaceIn context
- Change
How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In States unborn, and accents yet unknown!
William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act III, Scene I, spoken by CassiusIn context
- Acting
What’s past is prologue
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Tempest (c. 1611), Act II, Scene I, spoken by AntonioIn context
- Time
Let not Ambition mock their useful Toil,
Their homely Joys and Destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful Smile,
The short and simple Annals of the Poor.
Thomas Gray1716–1771Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)In context
- Work
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Paul Revere’s Ride (1860)In context
- America
One if by land, and two if by sea
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Paul Revere’s Ride (1860)In context
- America