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History Quotes

“Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.”

May History Habit Discipline Fruit Patient Active Diligence Roman Empire Often Is Valour

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them.”

People May History Glory All Things Prepared Be Prepared

Author:Brigham Young

“History is in a manner a sacred thing, so far as it contains truth; for where truth is, the supreme Father of it may also be said to be, at least, inasmuch as concerns truth.”

May Said Father History Truth Is Concern Sacred Supreme Sacred Things

Author:Miguel de Cervantes

“This war, disguise it as they may, is virtually nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedoms.”

May War History Universal Slavery Perpetual Disguise American Civil War

Author:Frederick Douglass

“What a general could do, Thomas did; no more dependable soldier for a moment of crisis existed on the North American continent, or ever did exist... Thomas comes down in history as the Rock of Chickamauga, the great defensive fighter, the man who could never be driven away but who was not much on the offensive. That may be a correct appraisal, Yet it may also be worth making note that just twice in all the war was a major Confederate army driven away from a prepared position in complete rout - at Chattanooga and at Nashville. Each time the blow that routed it was launched by Thomas.”

“Everything may happen.”

May Art Philosophy Happens History

Author:Seneca the Younger

“Our unconscious, then, does not believe in its own death; it behaves as if it were immortal. It knows nothing that is negative; in it contradictories coincide. This may be the secret of heroism.”

Ifs Knows Believe May Doe Art Philosophy Secret History Negative Behave Unconscious Immortal Heroism Contradictory

Author:Sigmund Freud

“No good poem, however confessional it may be, is just a self-expression. Who on earth would claim that the pearl expresses the oyster?”

May Art Self Philosophy Earth History Expression Claims Pearls Self Expression Oysters

Author:C. S. Lewis

“History is, and has always been trameled by facts. It may ignore some and deny others; but it cannot accommodate itself unreservedly to theories; it cannot be stripped of things evidenced in favor of things surmised.”

May Facts History Theory Deny Favors Accommodate

Author:Agnes Repplier

“The past is our treasure. Its works, whether we know them or not, flourish in our lives with whatever strength they had. From it we draw provision for our journey, the collected wisdom whose harvests are all ours to reap and carry with us, though we may never live again in the fields that grew them.”

Knows May Past History Our Lives Journey Fields Grew Draws Treasure Harvest Provision Reap

Book:The Lycian Shore

Source: The Lycian Shore

“To rush in upon an event before its significance has had time to separate from the surrounding circumstances may be enterprising, but is it useful? ... The recent prevalence of these hot histories on publishers' lists raises the question: Should - or perhaps can - history be written while it is still smoking?”

Should May Stills History Written Events Circumstances Hot Raises Lists Smoking Significance Publishers Enterprising

Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays

Source: Practicing History: Selected Essays

“Sport is a seductive metaphor (life as a game in which we gain victory through hard work, discipline, and visualizing success). but the older metaphor of farming (life as hard labor that is subject to weather and quirks of blind fate and may return no reward whatsoever and don't be surprised) is still in our blood.”

May Stills Hard Games Sports History Fate Blood Subjects Hard Work Return Victory Discipline Gains Labor Blind Rewards Metaphor Weather Farming Seductive Quirks Visualizing

Author:Garrison Keillor

“To resume, in a few words, the system of the Imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed.”

Source: 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

“The German huts, open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a persian harem. To this reason, another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human.”

Source: The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812

“There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus

“The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.”

Should Humans May Ideas Character Seems Action Perfect Pleasure United History Human Nature Attributes Respectable Roman Empire Qualifications

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows, white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according to Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and am impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that seem the most adapted to its present condition.”

Humans May Character Seems Passion Natural Levels History Conditions Return Degrees Enthusiasm Temporary Exalted Adapted Roman Empire Resumes

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic.”

Ifs Should May Heaven Wealth History Rich Absolutes Saint Merit Expenses Republic Idle Favour Roman Empire Charitable Monarchs Industrious Constantine Patrimony

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence.”

Humans May Lying Understanding Differences History Subjects Degrees Highest Weakness Lowest Roman Empire Dogmatic Obstinacy

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind.”

Ifs Mind May Sometimes Body Opinion History Fire Violence Disease Reflection Steel Roman Empire

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty.”

May Used Numbers Poverty History Resources Horse Hunger Active Speed Spares Adequate Rapids Barbarians Roman Empire Cavalry

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis: and we may credit the assertion of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal.”

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)

“The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws and the success of his arms rendered his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings.”

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)

“The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.”

Ifs May Government Enemy History Effects Produce Weak Assuming Appearance Ministers Council Distracted Pursued Roman Empire Correspondence Incapacity Public Enemies

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.”

May Might Names Lost History Events Charity Oblivion Bishops Calendars Roman Empire Disregarded

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest, and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“... the word "theory" ... was originally an Orphic word, which Cornford interprets as "passionate sympathetic contemplation" ... For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge ... To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural.”

Giving May Littles Seems School Understanding Natural Views History Strange Theory Intellectual Mathematics Passionate Delight Mathematical Contemplation Sympathetic

Book:History of Western Philosophy

Source: History of Western Philosophy

“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.”

“If a well-constituted individual refrains from blazoning aught amiss or calamitous in his family, a nation in the like circumstance may without reproach be equally discreet.”

Ifs Wells May Individual Nations History Circumstances Refrain Reproach Candor Discreet

Book:Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories

Source: Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories

“Why I love the ancients so much? Aside from everything else, when I read them, the entire past between them and me unfolds at thesame time. The hearts of how many heroes and poets may have been set on fire by Plutarch's biographies which now inspire me with their own and with borrowed flames!”

Heart May Has Beens Past Reading History Fire Inspire Poet Hero Flames Biographies Borrowed

Author:Franz Grillparzer

“In battle, combatants engaged in war against America get no due process and may lawfully be killed. But citizens not in a battlefield - however despicable - are guaranteed a trial by our Constitution. No one argues that Americans who commit treason shouldn't be punished. The maximum penalty for treason is death. But the Constitution specifies the process necessary to convict.”

“Postmodernism entices us with the siren call of liberation and creativity, but it may be an invitation to intellectual and moral suicide.”

May Moral Creativity History Intellectual Suicide Liberation Invitations Postmodernism Sirens

Author:Gertrude Himmelfarb

“The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.”

May Has Beens Whole God Happens Science Certain Order History Events Accounts Inspired Realization Arbitrary History Of Science

Book:A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes

Source: A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes

“For more than half a century... this Union has stood unshaken. Whatever dangers may threaten it, I shall stand by it and maintain it in its integrity to the full extent of the obligations imposed and the powers conferred upon me by the Constitution.”

May Half History Century Danger Integrity Constitution Unions Obligation Half A Century

Author:Zachary Taylor

“In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject which has recently agitated the nation..., I fervently hope that the question is at rest and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions.”

May Important Nations Views History Subjects Institutions Excitement Ambitious Durability

Author:Franklin Pierce

“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Knows Giving May War America Death Courses Freedom Business Liberty History Society Sweet Revolution Ethics Give Me Slavery Dear Libertarian Chains Patriotism Patriotic Amendments Libertarianism Almighty Patriot Founding 4th Of July Freedom And Liberty Freedom Liberty Our Founding Fathers Property Rights American Revolution Limited Government Total War Founding Fathers Christian Price Almighty God Bearing Arms Founding Fathers Religion Individual Liberty American Government Limiting Government Rights And Freedoms American Founding Fathers American Patriotic Limited Freedom Great Patriotic Us Constitution American Patriotism American Liberty Founding Fathers Democracy America Freedom Patriotism In America Price Of Freedom Revolution Founding Fathers Good Patriotic Limiting Freedom Constitutional Law Constitutional Government God And Country Tyranny Founding Fathers Security And Freedom American Independence Day Inspiring Patriotic Security And Liberty

Author:Patrick Henry

“Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.”

May Matter Past History Wise Happened Events Sarcasm Sarcastic Divided

Book:Assessments and Anticipations

Source: Assessments and Anticipations

“The errors of former times are recorded for our instruction in order that we may avoid their repition.”

May Order History Errors Former Instruction

Author:William E. Gladstone

“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!'”

Men May History Pride Cold Citizens Conservative Presidential Patriotic Cold War Berlin Free Man West Berlin

Author:John F. Kennedy

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.”

“The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.”

Writing Wells May Courses History Movement Mouthpiece

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.”

“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.”

Source: The People Of The Lie

“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”

Ifs May Law Literature History Historical Mere Lawyer Architect Venture Mechanic Masons Funny Lawyer

Author:Walter Scott

“May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.”

“Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.”

“The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.”

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“History may defeat the Christ but it nevertheless points to him as the law of life.”

May Law Christ History Defeat Nevertheless Laws Of Life

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr