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Quotes about history

176 quotes from 130 people

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The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.
Walter Benjamin1892–1940Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940), V
- Time
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881The Hero as Man of Letters
- Reading
So the pendulum swings, now violently, now slowly; and every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.
William Ralph Inge1860–1954“Democracy and the Future” The Atlantic Monthly (March 1922)
- Change
The study of history offers no manual of instructions that can be applied automatically; history teaches by analogy, shedding light on the likely consequences of comparable situations.
Henry Kissinger1923–2023Diplomacy (1994)
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
Robert F. Kennedy1925–1968Day of Affirmation Address, University of Cape Town (6 June 1966)
- Change
I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963“Remarks at a Closed-circuit Television Broadcast on Behalf of the National Cultural Center (527)” (29 November 1962)
An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.
Arthur Miller1915–2005“The Year it Came Apart”, New York magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1 (December 30, 1974 – January 6, 1975), p. 30
My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.
Thomas Hardy1840–1928The Dynasts (1904–1908), Pt. II, sc. v, Spirit Sinister
- War & Peace
The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.
Saki1870–1916The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)
- Comedy
There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.
Walter Benjamin1892–1940Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940), VII
A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The End of Laissez-faire (1926), Ch. 1
- Ideas
Herodotus says, “Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.”
Mark Twain1835–1910A Horse’s Tale (1907), Acknowledgements
- Comedy
Our revolution has made me feel the full force of the axiom that history is fiction and I am convinced that chance and intrigue have produced more heroes than genius and virtue.
Maximilien Robespierre1758–1794Lettres à ses commettants, 1ère série, n°10, (21 December 1792)
Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a previous age?
Cicero107–43 BCOrator Ad M. Brutum (46 BC), Chapter XXXIV, section 120
Lenin was sent into Russia by the Germans in the same way that you might send a phial containing a culture of typhoid or cholera to be poured into the water supply of a great city, and it worked with amazing accuracy.
Winston Churchill1874–1965On Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in the House of Commons, November 5, 1919; as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 355
- Clever Jabs