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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city's memory. Compared to the place it occupies in social history, a landmark's artistic qualities are incidental.”

FirstsDoeImportantSocialMemoriesCitiesQualityHistoryDesignBuildingEssentialsBuiltRateArchitectureArtisticFeaturesEncountersArchitectLandmarksImportant WorkSocial History
Author:Herbert Muschamp
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“The older I get the more I'm convinced that it's the purpose of politicians and journalists to say the world is very simple, whereas it's the purpose of historians to say, 'No! It's very complicated.' The job of the historian is to help give people a sense of existence in time, without which we are really not fully human.”

PeopleWorldGivingHumansHelpingJobsPurposeSimpleExistenceHistoryPoliticianComplicatedConvincedJournalistHistorianHistoriography
Author:David Cannadine
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“"Historians of every generation, I believe, unless they are pure antiquarians, see history against the background - the controlling background - of current events. They call upon it to explain the problems of their own time, to give to those problems a philosophical context, a continuum in which they may be reduced to proportion and perhaps made intelligible."”

GivingBelieveMayMadeProblemI BelieveHistoryGenerationsEventsPurePhilosophicalCurrentsBackgroundsProportionHistorianContinuumCurrent Events
Author:Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper
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“Today social justice represents one of the most serious challenges to the conscience of the world. The abyss between those who are within the world 'order' and those who are excluded is widening day by day. The use of leading-edge technologies has made it possible to accumulate wealth in a way that is fantastic but perverse because it is unjustly distributed. Twenty-percent of humankind control eighty percent of all means of life. That fact creates a dangerous imbalance in the movement of history.”

WorldWayMeanMadeFactsUseTodayOrderSocialChallengesWealthJusticeHistoryTechnologyDangerousMovementSeriousPercentConscienceTwentiesSocial JusticeEdgesInequalityMade ItFantasticHumankindUnjustAbyssTheologianDistributionEightyWorld OrderExcludedImbalancePerverseness
Book:The Prayer of Saint Francis: A Message of Peace for the World Today
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“An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.”

HumansWellsMightWould BeAgeEarthScienceGrowsHuman BeingsHistoryProgressYouthPlanetsEvolutionPerfectionTwentiesPhilosopherExtrasWiserTwenty OneGeneralizationHuman EvolutionGeneralisation
Book:Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections
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“The University of Cambridge, in accordance with that law of its evolution, by which, while maintaining the strictest continuity between the successive phases of its history, it adapts itself with more or less promptness to the requirements of the times, has lately instituted a course of Experimental Physics.”

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Book:Maxwell on Molecules and Gases
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“The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person's life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.”

PeopleWayShouldPersonsPhilosophyScienceLife IsNaturalOpinionHistoryStudyEnvironmentEffectsSeriousHard WorkActivityCreatingAspectEnvironmentalCommittedPrimariesReachingAvenuesProtectiveEnvironmentalistNatural History
Author:Roger Tory Peterson
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“Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes... The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses... In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his statues, and his triumphs defy the desecration of time and the judgment of history.”

SometimesPainFormHumanityEffortHistoryStruggleSacrificeHeroBenefitsJudgmentOppositesSakeExtremesRuinsTriumphContrastScholarCrownsPatriotStatuesCorpsesPrestigePedestalBearable
Author:Santiago Ramon y Cajal
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“The recurrence of a phenomenon like Edison is not very likely. The profound change of conditions and the ever increasing necessity of theoretical training would seem to make it impossible. He will occupy a unique and exalted position in the history of his native land, which might well be proud of his great genius and undying achievements in the interest of humanity.”

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Author:Nikola Tesla
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“The chemical differences among various species and genera of animals and plants are certainly as significant for the history of their origins as the differences in form. If we could define clearly the differences in molecular constitution and functions of different kinds of organisms, there would be possible a more illuminating and deeper understanding of question of the evolutionary reactions of organisms than could ever be expected from morphological considerations.”

IfsKindDifferentWould BeFormScienceUnderstandingDifferencesAnimalHistoryEvolutionFunctionConstitutionPlantSpeciesVariousDeeperExpectedSignificantReactionsConsiderationChemicalsDifferent KindsOrganismsIlluminatingDeeper Understanding
Author:Ray Lankester
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“It is very remarkable that while the words Eternal, Eternity, Forever, are constantly in our mouths, and applied without hesitation, we yet experience considerable difficulty in contemplating any definite term which bears a very large proportion to the brief cycles of our petty chronicles. There are many minds that would not for an instant doubt the God of Nature to have existed from all Eternity, and would yet reject as preposterous the idea of going back a million of years in the History of His Works. Yet what is a million, or a million million, of solar revolutions to an Eternity?”

YearsMindIdeasScienceTermNatureHistoryMillionsForeverDoubtHard WorkRevolutionBearsEternalMouthsEternityDifficultyInstantProportionRemarkableRejectsCyclesContemplatingDefinitePettyHesitationChronicles
Author:George Julius Poulett Scrope
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“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”

MenWayNeedsFeelsWellsKindLittlesHas BeensImportantStatesAbleCultureBlackJusticeWhiteUnitedHistoryUnited StatesFieldsDiversitySocial JusticeShouldersBlockWheelsBlack WomenGhettoCottonSuperfluousDecorationAmerican WomanAuctionsWomen RightCotton Fields
Author:Maya Angelou
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“The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: At first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.”

FirstsIdeasStatesShowsSeemsLastsScienceStepsHistoryAcceptanceTheoryPureClaimsMarkRaisedFollowingTreatedFancyNonsenseNew IdeasMultitudesContradictoryObjectionsTerminology
Book:Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers
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“Your past history and all of your hurts are no longer here in your physical reality. Don't allow them to be here in your mind, muddying your present moments. Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much longer. But all are necessary, otherwise they wouldn't be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.”

LifeMindPlayMomentsCharacterRealityPastMovingLife IsNextHurtRolesHistorySelf HelpLife PhilosophyLetting GoEmbraceMoving OnPresent MomentOur PastYour PastLife Is LikePeople In Your Life
Author:Wayne Dyer
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“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.”

PeopleWarCountryPoliticalPeaceFreedomLeaderHistoryDangerHuman RightsTrialsPropagandaNew WorldAnti WarAntiwarRulersDictatorshipNaziVietnam WarFreedom And LibertyFascistsNew World OrderWorld OrderPeace WarPolitical PowerDemocracies HaveExposingPacifistPeacemakingPeacemakerPacifismHuman FreedomMake Peace Not WarPolitical LifeRights And FreedomsNwoBiddingPolitical FreedomMedia ManipulationDemocracy FreedomPoliticians And PoliticsLiberty And EqualityGoeringPolitics FunnyNurembergDemocracy And Human RightsMedia PropagandaWar PropagandaPatriotism And WarPolitics And WarEngland And AmericaNuremberg TrialsWar Of 1812Communist Leaders
Author:Hermann Goring
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