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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.”

Has BeensRealNationsHistoryProgressModernIndustryComfortEuropeGlassesLuxuryPlentySensualRomeSenatorsConvenienceRoman EmpireRefinementPompousDestituteLinen
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labour of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the community.”

HandsCommunityCitiesHistoryMiddleSeatsLabourCommerceRespectableRoman EmpireSubsistenceDexterity
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“At the hour of midnight the Salerian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilised so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.”

YearsThreeSoundHoursCitiesHistoryMankindHundredFoundationGermanyGatesRomeThree YearsSixtyTribesMidnightFuryGothicElevenAwakenedTrumpetsRoman EmpireCivilised
Author:Edward Gibbon
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“The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. There were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general concern.”

KindLostLossHistoryNiceDutyConcernFemaleVictimSoldierSatisfiedSensualGloriousMisfortunesAppetiteCrownsBrutalConsentInclinationViolationVirginityRoman EmpireCaptivesConsulting
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“In less than seven years the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city appeared to resume its former splendour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the storms of war, and was still amused in the last moment of her decay with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion.”

YearsStillsWarMomentsLastsCitiesHistoryVictoryEternalSevenStormRevengeFormerDecayCrownsReplacedProphecySeven YearsInvasionGothicDominionRoman EmpireAmusedResumesLaurelsTranquillitySplendour
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from tumult and faction. The pre-eminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects of their own servants, would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary monarch.”

Has BeensSometimesPoliticalDesireHistorySubjectsRegretSourceBirthCitizensAdvantageFortuneBritishServantPerpetualReignArbitraryRestorationEscapingRoman EmpireFactionsMonarchsDiscordObtainingTumultEminenceHaughty
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the empire of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thousand and fifty-eight years in a state of premature and perpetual decay.”

WorldYearsStatesHistorySonThousandMarkFinalsEightEastFiftyEmpiresDivisionEstablishmentPerpetualDecayReignRoman EmpirePrematureConstantinople
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered from the pulpit of St. Sophia against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding or even marking the character of any individual.”

TwoCharacterChristianPastIndividualUnitedEnemyHistoryCrowdsLabourSinnerOffendedRoman EmpireClergyPulpitEnviedObstinateProvokedSophiaReproofConstantinople
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.”

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Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest, and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations.”

MayTwoWarCountryStatesUsePastLawNationsInterestEnemyPrinciplesHistoryExerciseBenefitsMurderPermanentConsiderationConquestModeratesApprehensionRoman EmpireDesolationHopes And Fears
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations: he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness.”

PeopleLastsVoiceHistorySawsHeardFeetAmbitionConsiderationSenateResentmentCorpsesEmperorBleedingRoman EmpireLast DayInaugurationDisregarded
Book:History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V3: the History Focus
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“... the word "theory" ... was originally an Orphic word, which Cornford interprets as "passionate sympathetic contemplation" ... For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge ... To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural.”

GivingMayLittlesSeemsSchoolUnderstandingNaturalViewsHistoryStrangeTheoryIntellectualMathematicsPassionateDelightMathematicalContemplationSympathetic
Book:History of Western Philosophy
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“It seems to us unwise to have insisted on teaching geometry to the younger Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, in order to make him a good king, but from Plato's point of view it was essential. He was sufficiently Pythagorean to think that without mathematics no true wisdom is possible.”

ThinkingSeemsOrderViewsHistoryTeachingKingsEssentialsMathematicsPoint Of ViewTyrantsPlatoGeometryUnwiseTrue WisdomPlato SGood KingsSyracuse
Book:History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition
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“The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason. The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man's mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism - a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom.”

MenMindReasonAgeHistoryMiddleBirthBlindSuperiorsErasLiberationTriumphObedienceMysticismIndividualismDogmaRationalityRebirthMiddle AgesIncompleteRenaissanceBlind FaithImpassionedFalteringBlind Obedience
Book:The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution
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“If a beach-head of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”

IfsWorldFirstsMayLawStrongSidesHistoryPlanetsBalanceThousandCreatingHundredWeakLifetimeFinishedSecureAdministrationBeachEndeavorCooperationNew WorldSuspicionBoth SidesJungleBalance Of Power
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“It is beyond a doubt that during the sixteenth century, and the years immediately preceding and following it, poisoning had been brought to a pitch of perfection which remains unknown to modern chemistry, but which is indisputably proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was at that time, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are lost.”

YearsLostSecretHistoryDoubtModernCenturyPerfectionRemainsFollowingChemistryMistressInventorCradleModern SciencePoisoning
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“Even here in America, we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom when Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country where formerly he was not even allowed to vote. We were enlarged by tears of pride as we saw Nelson Mandela's former prison guards invited, courteously, by him to watch from the front rows his inauguration.”

CountryWisdomRealityAmericaPoliticsFeltCommunityLeadershipJusticeClassWatchesHistorySawsGenerationsFrontsTearsPrideEqualEthicsVotePrisonUnityHuman RightsIndividualityIdeologyFormerSeatsPresidencyInvitedBreezeEqual RightsCivilityDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceRefreshingNelsonInaugurationPrison GuardsMandela S
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Primitive times are lyrical, ancient times epical, modern times dramatic. The ode sings of eternity, the epic imparts solemnity tohistory, the drama depicts life. The characteristic of the first poetry is ingeniousness, of the second, simplicity, of the third, truth.”

FirstsLiteratureHistoryModernDramaThirdsEternitySimplicityAncientDramaticCharacteristicsPoetry IsPrimitiveEpicImpartLyricalModern TimesAncient TimesSolemnityOdes
Book:The Works of Victor Hugo ...
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“As a novelist, I cannot occupy myself with "characters," or at any rate central ones, who lack panache, in one or another sense, who would be incapable of a major action or a major passion, or who have not a touch of the ambiguity, the ultimate unaccountability, the enlarging mistiness of persons "in history." History, as more austerely I now know it, is not romantic. But I am.”

KnowsPersonsCharacterWould BeActionRomancePassionHistoryMajorsUltimateRateNovelistsIncapableAmbiguityPanache
Author:Elizabeth Bowen
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“... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal,that we can understand our past through a male lens--if we are unaware that women even have a history--we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.”

IfsPhilosophyPastAcceptingHistoryOur LivesWindUniversalResponseMalesDefinitionsMythBiasOur PastLensesDrifting
Book:Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985
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