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History Quotes

Browse 6202 quotes about History.

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History Quotes

“For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.”

WorldFirstsHumansMomentsHuman BeingsHistoryEnvironmentDangerousFirst TimeHistoricalEnvironmentalContactConceptionChemicalsPollutionEcologyWorld HistoryHuman HistoryOur EnvironmentEnvironmentalistSave Mother EarthGreen LivingSilent SpringInspirational Environmental
Book:Silent Spring
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“The fundamental differences between Marxian and traditional orthodox economics are, first, that the orthodox economists accept the capitalist system as part of the eternal order of Nature, while Marx regards it as a passing phase in the transition from the feudal economy of the past to the socialist economy of the future.”

FirstsPastOrderPoliticsNatureCommunityDifferencesWorkMoneyAcceptingHistoryEconomyGenerationsHuman NaturePolicyEternalCapitalismEconomicsRegardFundamentalsStrategySocialismPassingPassingsTraditionalOrthodoxTransitionCapitalistPhasesSocialistEconomistSocialist Economy
Book:Essay on Marxian Economics
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“But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church.”

WorldFirstsReasonHandsAgeLawChristChurchHistorySawsBenefitsEvidenceSickBlindRaisedExcuseSensesDoctrineDiscipleLaws Of NatureHealedApostlesPaganRoman EmpireLameSuspendedOmnipotencePhilosophicProdigiesInattention
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth and the accidents of his life never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely have preferred the groves of the Academy and the society of Athens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwards by the injustice of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the dangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable to the world and to posterity for the happiness of millions.”

WorldFirstsPersonsPhilosophyMightActionChoicesHistoryMillionsDangerGreatnessBirthFameAdvantageInjusticeAccidentsCompareRetirementSincerelyPosterityAcademyRoman EmpireFreedom Of ChoiceElevationAthensGrove
Book:THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages
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“Instead of pressing, with the foremost of the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople, Libanius calmly expected his arrival at Antioch; withdrew from court on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference; required a formal invitation for each visit; and taught his sovereign an important lesson, that he might command the obedience of a subject, but that he must deserve the attachment of a friend.”

FirstsImportantMightHistorySubjectsTaughtLessonsDeserveCourtCrowdsExpectedCommandObedienceIndifferenceAttachmentFormalSovereignSymptomsInvitationsPalacesArrivalsRoman EmpireColdnessImportant LessonsConstantinopleAntioch
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“Yet the people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often dismissed the implacable enemy of the republic. The first moment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and calumny.”

PeopleFirstsWarMomentsJoyEnemyHistoryPolicyGratitudeJudgmentSafetyEnvyRationalRepublicDevotedIncapableRoman EmpireClergyCalumnyPublic Safety
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
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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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“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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“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”

WorldFirstsWarDonePleasureHistoryExtraordinaryWar Of The WorldsCivil WarWorld War ICoincidenceRepetitionSecond World WarFirst World WarBalkansSpanish Civil War
Book:Wars I have seen
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“The scientific observer of the realm of nature is in a sense naturally and inevitably disinterested. At least, nothing in the natural scene can arouse his bias. Furthermore, he stands completely outside of the natural so that his mind, whatever his limitations, approximates pure mind. The observer of the realm of history cannot be disinterested in the same way, for two reasons: first, he must look at history from some locus in history; secondly, he is to a certain degree engaged in its ideological conflicts.”

WayMindFirstsLooksTwoReasonScienceCertainNaturalHistoryScenePureConflictDegreesLimitationRealmsEngagedBiasObserversIdeologicalDisinterested
Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
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“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himselfremained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”

WayFirstsDoeLightLeadershipWalksHistoryCenturySourceShadowWorthyErasAccomplishedFeatsNew EraVenerationErasmus
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Every epoch which seeks renewal first projects its ideal into a human form. In order to comprehend its own essence tangibly, the spirit of the time chooses a human being as its prototype and raising this single individual, often one upon whom it has chanced to come, far beyond his measure, the spirit enthuses itself for its own enthusiasm.”

FirstsHumansFormSpiritOrderIndividualChangeHuman BeingsHistoryProjectsIdealsEssenceEnthusiasmRenewalEpochHuman FormPrototype
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“In any conflict area, it is always the women who are the first point of attack. But I think the more they have seen of oppression and violence, they have gotten more brave, more strong, more fearless than they were. You see this refusal to just keep quiet and do as you are told.”

ThinkingFirstsWisdomStrongCommunityLeadershipHistoryViolenceGenerationsQuietConflictEqualSpringAreasBraveHuman RightsIndividualityTerrorismOppressionFearlessEqual RightsRefusalDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceArab Spring
Author:Fatima Bhutto
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“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

FirstsBeliefFearEffortHistoryNeededSpeechLet MeTerrorFirmPatrioticRetreatAmerican PoliticsNamelessInaugurationInauguralNew DealInaugural AddressWorry And FearUnjustifiedFirm BeliefsWorry FearInaugural SpeechHate And FearFear MeHealthy Fear
Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“History is for human self-knowledge. Knowing yourself means knowing, first, what it is to be a person; secondly, knowing what it is to be the kind of person you are; and thirdly, knowing what it is to be the person you are and nobody else is. Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do; and since nobody knows what they can do until they try, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”

KnowsMenTryingFirstsHumansKindMeanPersonsSelfDoneValuesCan DoTeachHistoryKnowingSelf KnowledgeClueKnow YourselfNobody KnowsValue Of History
Author:Robin G. Collingwood
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“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 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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“As Karl Marx once noted: 'Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.' William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial was a tragedy. The creationists and intelligent design theorists are a farce.”

WorldFirstsFactsScienceHistoryDesignFirst TimeTragedyIntelligentAddHistoricalTrialsScopeRemarksTheoristsFarceIntelligent DesignHegelBryanHistorical FactsScopes Trial
Author:Michael Shermer
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“The Nazi Party was, in the early 1920s, but one among many nationalist and volkisch radical political groups. It was catapulted to prominence with the onset of economic recession in the late 1920s... The Nazis owed their spectacular to a combination of two discrete sets of factors: first, their distinctive organisation and strategy; and secondly, the wider socio-economic conditions which created climates of opinion and sets of grievances on which the Nazis could prey.”

FirstsTwoPoliticalPartyOpinionHistoryGroupsEconomicConditionsLateStrategyClimateFactorsRadicalCombinationNaziPreySpectacularOrganisationRecessionsDistinctiveNazismGrievanceNazi GermanyProminenceDiscreteNazi PartyPolitical GroupsEconomic Recession
Author:Mary Fulbrook
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“Historical chronology, human or geological, depends... upon comparable impersonal principles. If one scribes with a stylus on a plate of wet clay two marks, the second crossing the first, another person on examining these marks can tell unambiguously which was made first and which second, because the latter event irreversibly disturbs its predecessor. In virtue of the fact that most of the rocks of the earth contain imprints of a succession of such irreversible events, an unambiguous working out of the chronological sequence of these events becomes possible.”

IfsFirstsHumansPersonsMadeTwoFactsEarthSciencePrinciplesHistoryVirtueRocksEventsDependsMarkHistoricalWork OutLatterWetPlatesClaySequenceSuccessionCrossingsExaminingPredecessorsIrreversibleChronologyScribes
Author:M. King Hubbert
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