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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”

Men Social Process History Modern Mass Productions Equality Commodity Equality Of People Art Of Loving Mass Production Social Equality Equality Of Man Standardization

Book:THE ART OF LOVING

Source: THE ART OF LOVING

“Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it.”

Mind Littles Belief Grows History Mass Prejudice Ancient Spread Spots Novelty Patches Stains Grease

Book:Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth

Source: Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth

“History is made by masses of people. One man, or ten men, don't start the earthquakes and don't stop them either. Only hero worshipers and ignorant historians think they do.”

People Thinking Men Made History Hero Ten Mass Ignorant One Man Historian Earthquakes Hero Worship

Book:The Searching Wind: A Play in Two Acts

Source: The Searching Wind: A Play in Two Acts

“Dead, we become the lumber of the world, And to that mass of matter shall be swept Where things destroyed with things unborn are kept.”

World Matter History Mass Destroyed Unborn Lumber

Author:Seneca the Younger

“In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details. But in history the matter is far otherwise. Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.”

“Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value; and the precious particles are generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is a task of the utmost difficulty.”

Whole Facts Lying Values History Mass Tasks Gold Difficulty Mere Separation Abstract Particles Latent Dross

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the words of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther bathed Europe in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history.”

Men World Force Voice History Millions Blood Genius Civilization Mass Capable Europe East March Peter Echoes Obscure Monk Luther Inventor Fanatics Newton Hermits Bidding

Author:Gustave Le Bon

“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."”

Ifs Men Self Young Individual Responsibility History Talent Movement Mass Burden Nazi Nazism Ardent Nazi Germany Freedom To Choose Individual Responsibility

Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

Source: Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

“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.”

Ifs Way Said Half Leader History Mass Paid Decades Educated Foreigners Breakdown Noisy Nazism Homage Nazi Germany Undisciplined

Book:The Making of Adolf Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism

Source: The Making of Adolf Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism