Quotessence
Home / Topics / History Quotes

History Quotes

Browse 6202 quotes about History.

Related topics

MenArtPhilosophyIfsPastWarWorldPeopleHistoricalHumansHistorianKnowsMayRoman EmpireDoeThinkingScienceHas BeensNationsWritingFactsWayInspirationalWorld HistoryAmerican Civil WarCivil WarShouldEventsYearsAgeMindFirstsPoliticalGenerationsWantBritish HistoryHumourWholeCountryGivingWomenLifeMadeBelievePoliticsStatesLongMotivationalEndsWisdomAmericaNazi GermanyCenturyFunnyHandsLawMemoriesNazismFormLittlesMankindNeedsRaceRealStudyGovernmentLyingRealityWrittenCharacterCoursesHeartPrinciplesSeemsTwoBookIdeasIndividualLiteratureWellsMeanMightStillsActionCivilizationDoneLooksPersonsStoriesTeachBloodEnemyEyeMilitaryOrderRecordsViewsHappenedImportantReasonmore

History Quotes

“The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.”

MindHumansHeartMaySoulWholeCharacterCoursesEvilIndividualLostChangeHistoryDependsIntegrityBattleHumbleGood And EvilSolitaryHuman HistoryGood Against EvilChange Of HeartGood EvilStruggle Between Good And EvilBattle Between Good And Evil
Book:The People Of The Lie
Create image

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

HumansRaceEducationTeachHistoryTeacherTeachingIgnoranceHumorousProfoundWittyAppreciationEducationalInsaneHistorianCatastropheHuman HistoryEducation SystemGreat TeacherEducational SystemGreat EducationTeaching And LearningEducation And TeachersGreat EducationalTeaching And EducationTeachers And TeachingTeaching EducationTeaching LearningGreat TeachingTeacher AppreciationPhilosophy Of EducationAdult EducationTeacher MotivationalHistory TeacherAdult LearningEducational ReformLearning EnvironmentTeaching History
Author:H. G. Wells
Create image

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

HumansHelpingSufferingPeaceSidesHuman BeingsSilenceHistoryVictimSilentEndureHolocaustMentorRemembranceSilence IsHumiliationOppressorsPro LifeNeutralityBystandersDarfurHolocaust Memorial
Book:From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences
Create image

“These are the things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of man’s freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.”

PeopleMenHumansLooksLongBookStoriesLastsSpiritFreedomBehindsWonderHistoryDoorsBrotherGloryMovedI Have LearnedLast TimeStandpointFree SpiritBeing FreeLong StoryUltimate Freedom
Book:Study Guide: Anthem (Study Gudie and Book)
Create image

“The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion. There seems to be no reason, then, to accept the normal level of human experience as fact and reject its other levels as mystical and emotional.”

HumansHas BeensReasonFactsSeemsLiteratureReligiousLevelsAcceptingHistoryMankindAcceptanceEmotionalBearsPoliticianNormalIllusionExperienceMereEndurePhilosopherRejectionNo ReasonRejectsLife ExperienceScholarRejectedDominantMysticalTestimonyHuman ExperienceRevealingMysticReligious Experience
Book:The religious thought in Islam
Create image

“It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

MenHumansDifferentTimeHopePoliticsBeliefEnergyPeaceChangeJusticeHistoryMillionsCourageRightsThis WorldWallIdealsSocial JusticeInjusticeHuman RightsCurrentsStrikesImprovementTinyHelping OthersResistanceOppressionMaking A DifferenceDaringDiverseVolunteerHuman SpiritHistoricWorld HistoryHuman HistoryBlack HistoryCrossingsHave CourageRippleGreat WarCaring For OthersPeace And JusticeHelping Each OtherBeing At PeacePeace JusticeBlack History MonthInspirational MilitaryGiving To CharityCharity And GivingInspirational CharityBlack History Month InspirationalGiving To OthersActs Of CourageSocial InjusticeLaw And JusticeSelf GivingPhilanthropy GivingJustice And InjusticeYou Can Make A DifferenceOne Person Can Make A DifferencePhilanthropy InspirationActs Of CharityCenter Of The WorldInjustice And OppressionPeace With OthersVolunteer AppreciationJustice EqualityVolunteers Making A DifferenceInspiring VolunteerHope CourageDaring To Be GreatInjustice In The WorldActs Of HeroismHeroic Acts
Book:Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy
Create image

“I am not blind to the shortcomings of our own people. I am not unaware that leaders betray, and sell out, and play false. But this knowledge does not outweigh the fact that my class, the working class, is exploited, driven, fought back with the weapon of starvation, with guns and with venal courts whenever they strike for conditions more human, more civilized for their children, and for their children's children.”

PeopleHumansChildrenDoePlayFactsLeaderClassKnowledgeHistoryConditionsWeaponsGunBlindSellsCourtStrikesDrivenCivilizedBetrayWorking ClassStarvationShortcomings
Author:Mother Jones
Create image

“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid.”

InspirationalMindHumansCountryWisdomMotivationalHistoryStudyRecordsExampleFineWise WordsWords Of WisdomModelsExperienceSickInfiniteMedicineVarietyFinding YourselfWarningAvoidingHuman ExperienceRottenFine Things
Book:The History of Early Rome
Create image

“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
Create image

“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.”

MenHumansPhilosophyStrongHistoryStudyWiseHuman NatureHe ManWeakSillyTrialsIncidentsUs History
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
Create image

“Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature.”

HumansUsePrinciplesHistoryMankindHuman NatureParticularStrangeUniversalConstantAll TimeChiefsUs HistoryNothing New
Book:An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion
Create image

“History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery.”

HumansLongPoliticalEvilPeaceFreedomHistoryEconomicPerspectiveJudgmentDiedSlaveryFeministOppressionFighterRangeTyrantsHuman FreedomSufferersVindicationPolitical OppressionEconomic Slavery
Book:Labor's Own William Z. Foster: A Communist's Fifty Years of Working-class Leadership and Struggle
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.”

MenShouldHumansEndsAgeRaceHistoryYouthIllusionHuman RaceFedsCynicismAltruismRenounce
Book:Greatest Works of Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, The Duel, Lord Jim, Victory, The Shadow-Line, The Arrow of Gold, The Secret Agent, The Nigger of the Narcissus & Under Western Eyes: Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)
Create image

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

HumansWarLibertyHistoryMilitaryFieldsHeroBattleConflictConservativeBritainWorld War IiWorld War IHeroismWarfareEnteringNot Giving UpMemorial DayGreat WarInspirational MilitaryAir PowerWorld War 1Military PowerCall Of DutyMilitary HistoryProwessMilitary ServiceHouse Of CommonsGood PatrioticGreat MilitaryAirmenFinest HourGreatest MilitaryUndauntedPearl Harbor DayPatriotism And WarThanking Our VeteransMilitary LifeBattle Of Britain
Author:Winston Churchill
Create image

“Human behaviour reveals uniformities which constitute natural laws. If these uniformities did not exist, then there would be neither social science nor political economy, and even the study of history would largely be useless. In effect, if the future actions of men having nothing in common with their past actions, our knowledge of them, although possibly satisfying our curiosity by way of an interesting story, would be entirely useless to us as a guide in life.”

IfsMenWayHumansStoriesWould BeActionPastLawSciencePoliticalSocialNaturalInterestingCommonExistenceKnowledgeHistoryEconomyStudyEffectsCuriosityGuidesUselessSatisfyingBehaviourNatural LawUniformitySocial SciencePolitical EconomyHuman BehaviourInteresting Stories
Author:Vilfredo Pareto
Create image

“The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities-perhaps the only one-in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. In most other fields of human endeavour there is change, but rarely progress ... And in most fields we do not even know how to evaluate change.”

KnowsHumansIdeasDreamScienceSpeakMistakeHistoryKnow HowLearningProgressFieldsActivityErrorsClarityIrresponsibleEvaluateEndeavourHuman ActivityHistory Of ScienceObstinacyLearning From Our Mistakes
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“The six thousand years of human history form but a portion of the geologic day that is passing over us: they do not extend into the yesterday of the globe, far less touch the myriads of ages spread out beyond.”

YearsHumansAgeFormScienceHistoryThousandSixSpreadYesterdayPassingPassingsPortionsGlobesThousand YearsHuman HistoryGeology
Book:An Autobiography: My Schools and Schoolmasters; Or, The Story of My Education
Create image

“[Theodore Roosevelt] was a naturalist on the broadest grounds, uniting much technical knowledge with knowledge of the daily lives and habits of all forms of wild life. He probably knew tenfold more natural history than all the presidents who had preceded him, and, I think one is safe in saying, more human history also.”

ThinkingHumansFormSciencePresidentNaturalKnowledgeHistoryHabitSafeDaily LifeHuman HistoryNaturalistUnitingNatural HistoryTheodoreTechnical KnowledgeWild Life
Author:John Burroughs
Create image

“Indeed, I suspect that the changes that have taken place during the last century in the average man's fundamental beliefs, in his philosophy, in his conception of religion, in his whole world outlook, are greater than the changes that occurred during the preceding four thousand years all put together.”

MenWorldYearsHumansPhilosophyWholeDreamTogetherLastsScienceBeliefHistoryTakenGreaterFourCenturyThousandConceptsAccountsFundamentalsAverageWhole WorldHuman LifeMy TimeSuspectsApplicationThousand YearsOutlookAverage Man
Author:Robert Andrews Millikan
Create image

“How strange it would be if the final theory were to be discovered in our lifetimes! The discovery of the final laws of nature will mark a discontinuity in human intellectual history, the sharpest that has occurred since the beginning of modern science in the seventeenth century. Can we now imagine what that would be like?”

IfsHumansWould BeLawScienceHistoryImagineModernCenturyStrangeTheoryIntellectualDiscoveryMarkLifetimeFinalsLaws Of NatureModern ScienceDiscontinuity
Book:Dreams of a Final Theory
Create image

“The earth's becoming at a particular period the residence of human beings, was an era in the moral, not in the physical world, that our study and contemplation of the earth, and the laws which govern its animate productions, ought no more to be considered in the light of a disturbance or deviation from the system, than the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter should be regarded as a physical event in the history of those heavenly bodies, however influential they may have become from that time in advancing the progress of sound philosophy among men.”

MenWorldShouldHumansMayPhilosophyBodyLightEarthLawScienceSoundHuman BeingsMoralHistoryStudyProgressEventsParticularOughtBecomingPeriodsDiscoveryProductionsErasContemplationHeavenlyInfluentialAdvancingDisturbanceSatellitesJupiterResidenceDeviationHeavenly Bodies
Book:Principles of Geology
Create image