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Quote by Bernard DeVoto

“History abhors determinism but cannot tolerate chance.”

Author

Bernard DeVoto was an American historian renowned for his in-depth research into the history of the American West. His works are characterized by vivid narration and profound analysis, which have had a profound impact on later historians. more

“In the index to the six hundred odd pages of Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History, abridged version, the names of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes and Newton do not occur yet their cosmic quest destroyed the medieval vision of an immutable social order in a walled-in universe and transformed the European landscape, society, culture, habits and general outlook, as thoroughly as if a new species had arisen on this planet.”

“History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you don't use the stuff - well, it might as well be dead.”

Ifs Wells Use Might Action Life Is Used Stuff Intellectual Historical Practicals Intellectual Life Practical Life

Author:Arnold J. Toynbee

“For this reason poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history.”

Reason Attention Serious Philosophical Historical Worthy Poetry Is

Author:Aristotle

“There is no more fascinating subject in which a person may become occupied than an examination into the history of his ancestry.”

May Persons Subjects Historical Fascinating Examination Ancestry

Author:Archibald F. Bennett

“Pornographers are the enemies of women only because our contemporary ideology of pornography does not encompass the possibility of change, as if we were the slaves of history and not its makers. . . . Pornography is a satire on human pretensions.”

Ifs Humans Doe Change Enemy Possibility Historical Slave Contemporary Ideology Satire Makers Pornography Pretension Possibility Of Change

Author:Angela Carter

“In the course of history, all empires have been created with premeditation, by an effort often sustained over several generations. Every power has been Roman to a degree. The United States is the first nation to become the most powerful in the world without having sought to be so. Its exceptional energy and organization have never been oriented toward conquest.”

“ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, including its king, the House Fly ("Musca maledicta"). The father of Zoology was Aristotle, as is universally conceded, but the name of its mother has not come down to us.”

Science Mother Father House Names Animal Kings Historical Including Kingdoms Animal Kingdom Conceded Zoology

Book:Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs

Source: Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs

“I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. That would be claiming too much. But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming . . . and a little mad.”

Littles Ideas Play Would Be Success Study Too Much Cutting Essentials Mathematics Mad Historical Profound Math Mathematical Charming Constructs Simile Ophelia Omitting

Book:Science and the Modern World

Source: Science and the Modern World

“I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.”

World Said Philosophy Historical Observation Optimist Irrelevant Pessimist Eliot Personal History

Author:A. E. Housman

Quote by Bernard DeVoto

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