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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.”

MenWellsBodySpiritPoliticsIndividualHistoryTyrannySusceptible
Book:A summary view of the rights of British America: Set forth in some resolutions intended for the inspection of the present delegates of the people of Virginia, now in convention ...
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“The selective winnowing of time leaves only a few recognizable individuals behind for the historian to light on. Thus the historian who finds the human being more interesting than what the human being has done must inevitably endow the comparatively few individuals he can identify with too great an importance in relation to their time. Even so, I prefer this overestimate to the opposite method which treats developments as though they were the massive anonymous waves of an unhuman sea or pulverizes the fallible surviving records of human life into the grey dust of statistics.”

HumansDoneLightIndividualHuman BeingsInterestingBehindsHistoryRecordsSeaDevelopmentOppositesTreatsImportanceRelationMethodWaveDustHuman LifeStatisticsMassiveHistorianGreySurvivingSelectiveOverestimate
Author:C. V. Wedgwood
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“The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of a prince, who indulged their passions and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them security, wealth, honours, and revenge; and the support of the orthodox faith was considered as the most sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion.”

WorldImportantPassionIndividualInterestMemoriesWealthHistorySupportSecurityDutyGratefulSacredPrivilegeRevengeOrthodoxHonourApplauseRoman EmpireClergyCharterTolerationMagistratesMilanConstantine
Book:History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The complaints of contemporary writes, who deplore the increase of luxury and deprevation of manners, are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the bland and capricious passions of a multitude of individuals.”

WritingActionPassionIndividualViewsSecretSituationHistoryClearNiceRevolutionCapableSpringIncreaseContemporaryLuxuryMannersPeculiarTemperDiscoveringUniformsMultitudesComplaintsObserversComprehensiveRoman EmpireExpressiveBlandCapricious
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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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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“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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“There is a sort of myth of History that philosophers have.... History for philosophers is some sort of great, vast continuity in which the freedom of individuals and economic or social determinations come and get entangled. When someone lays a finger on one of those great themes--continuity, the effective exercise of human liberty, how individual liberty is articulated with social determinations--when someone touches one of these three myths, these good people start crying out that History is being raped or murdered.”

PeopleHumansThreeIndividualSocialLibertyHistoryEconomicCryExerciseDeterminationLaysFingersPhilosopherMythThemeGood PeopleContinuityIndividual Liberty
Author:Michel Foucault
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“Americans, more than most people, believe that history is the result of individual decisions to implement conscious intentions. For Americans, more than most people, history has been that.... This sense of openness, of possibility and autonomy, has been a national asset as precious as the topsoil of the Middle West. But like topsoil, it is subject to erosion; it requires tending. And it is not bad for Americans to come to terms with the fact that for them too, history is a story of inertia and the unforeseen.”

PeopleBelieveHas BeensFactsStoriesIndividualTermDecisionResultsHistoryMiddleSubjectsPossibilityConsciousIntentionWestAssetsOpennessAutonomyInertiaErosionUnforeseenTopsoil
Author:George Will
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“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
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“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”

LongCharacterRunningIndividualNationsHistoryPerseveranceIndividualityFactorsLong RunsStay StrongCharacter BuildingStrength Of CharacterGood CharacterGreat CharacterStrong CharacterBuilding CharacterPersonality FlawsInspirational Character
Book:Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century
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“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
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“Years should not be devoted to the acquisition of dead languages or to the study of history which, for the most part, is a detailed account of things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the individual with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history, the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above all, of the sciences.”

ShouldYearsPhilosophyIndividualLanguageNationsGrowthHistoryStudyTaughtTheoryBirthKingsBattleAccountsUselessDevotedAcquisitionBirth And DeathGreat Battle
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“Historians constantly rewrite history, reinterpreting (reorganizing) the records of the past. So, too, when the brain's coherent responses become part of a memory, they are organized anew as part of the structure of consciousness. What makes them memories is that they become part of that structure and thus form part of the sense of self; my sense of self derives from a certainty that my experiences refer back to me, the individual who is having them. Hence the sense of the past, of history, of memory, is in part the creation of the self.”

SelfPastFormIndividualMemoriesBrainConsciousnessHistoryRecordsCreationStructureResponseCertaintyOrganizedHistorianSelf ConsciousSense Of SelfSelf Consciousness
Author:Israel Rosenfield
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