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 Whig interpretation of history ... is the tendency in many historians to write on the side of Protestants and Whigs, to praise revolutions provided they have been successful, to emphasise certain principles of progress in the past and to produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present.”

IfsWritingHas BeensStoriesPastScienceCertainSidesPrinciplesHistorySuccessfulProgressProduceRevolutionPraiseTendenciesInterpretationHistorianProtestantsGlorification
Book:The Whig interpretation of history
Create image

“Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom."”

IfsMenSelfYoungIndividualResponsibilityHistoryTalentMovementMassBurdenNaziNazismArdentNazi GermanyFreedom To ChooseIndividual Responsibility
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“From the days of the Founding Fathers, right to this (2008) election, how and where America fights to defend its freedom, has been the ultimate question in its politics. The one that triggers rage and sorrow; the one that asks is the price of blood too dear? Or, if it is to stay true to its convictions, does America have no coice but to put its lives on the line?”

IfsDoeHas BeensWarAmericaFightingAsksFatherLinesHistoryBloodSorrowUltimateElectionDearConvictionRageCivil WarFoundingTriggersAmerican Civil WarStay TrueUltimate Questions
Author:Simon Schama
Create image

“It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them. And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings.”

PeopleIfsMenYearsHumansChildrenLongBookEnoughLastsRememberHuman BeingsHistoryConcernExcellenceBe GoodGood EnoughGrandchildrenRemember YouRemembers YouChildren And Grandchildren
Book:The Good Life According to Hemingway
Create image

“We don't know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don't understand our name at all, we don't know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”

IfsKnowsMomentsInspirationFunnyNamesUnderstandingHistoryBearsProudHumorousHistoricalBrilliantAncestorFidelityExalted
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image

“Better contraceptives will control population only if people will use them. A nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. We need to make vast changes in human behavior.”

PeopleIfsNeedsHumansArtWarPhilosophyUseNationsPracticeHistoryEnvironmentConditionsChangedBehaviorPopulationNuclearAbandonedHolocaustPollutionHuman BehaviorContraceptives
Author:B. F. Skinner
Create image

“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
Create image

“In many ways Nazism was antithetical to what the great mass of Germans said they admired - and certainly to what they paid homage. It was noisy, undisciplined, vainglorious; its leader was a half-educated posturing foreigner. For a decade the National Socialists were regarded as hoodlums, as part of the breakdown of what had been, if anything, an excessively ordered society before.”

IfsWaySaidHalfLeaderHistoryMassPaidDecadesEducatedForeignersBreakdownNoisyNazismHomageNazi GermanyUndisciplined
Book:The Making of Adolf Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism
Create image

“Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom.”

IfsYearsMightWould BeOpportunityHistoryConditionsComfortSlaveDeniedImperfectFidelityDiligenceRoman EmpireRendering
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
Create image

“To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayGivingShouldHumansFactsPastRememberHopeEnergyWaitingHuman BeingsCompassionKindnessHistorySacrificeWorstGreatnessVictoryFutureCapacityInfiniteCrueltyHopefulGood TimesOur FutureMarvelousHuman BehaviorHuman HistoryMy FutureSuccessionDefianceBad TimesUtopianPast Present FutureHope For The FutureBright FutureGreat InspirationalHopeful Future
Author:Howard Zinn
Create image

“Africans and persons of African descent must assume the primary responsibility and leadership in historical research....if we are to continue to leave practically all important historical research and writing concerning the black race to the white man, then we must be prepared to accept, uncomplainingly, the white man's point of view.”

IfsMenWritingPersonsImportantBlackLeadershipWhiteViewsRaceResponsibilityAcceptingHistoryResearchAssumingHistoricalPreparedPoint Of ViewAfrican AmericanPrimariesBe PreparedWhite ManResearchersDescentHistorical ResearchBlack RaceResearch And Writing
Author:Chancellor Williams
Create image