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Quotes about history

176 quotes from 130 people

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Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)
- War & Peace
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
Assassination has never changed the history of the world.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Addressing the House of Commons after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1 May 1865)
We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Decoration Day address, Arlington National Cemetery (30 May 1871)
- War & Peace
The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.
W. E. B. Du Bois1868–1963The Souls of Black Folk (1903), The ForethoughtIn context
- Race
It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.
Will Durant1885–1981The Case for India (1931)
Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.
Will Durant1885–1981III—Caesar and Christ (1944), Chapter 30, part 1, p. 652
- Christianity
There is nothing in Greek civilization that does not illuminate our own.
Will Durant1885–1981The Life of Greece (1939), Preface
The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization.
Will Durant1885–1981Philosophy and the Social Problem (1917)
- Change
Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages.
Freeman Dyson1923–2020Infinite in All Directions (1988), Ch. 8: Quick Is Beautiful, p. 135.
- Technology
The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
George Eliot1819–1880The Mill on the Floss (1860), Book VI, ch. iiiIn context
- Happiness
- Women
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
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Concord Hymn (1837)In context
- America
What each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed.
Friedrich Engels1820–1895Letter to Joseph Bloch (21 September 1890)