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History Quotes

Browse 6202 quotes about History.

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History Quotes

“In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.”

WisdomPastHistoryMankindMaterialsErrorsDrawingInstructionVolumeUs HistoryInfirmityGreat History
Book:Reflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris
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“Animals are molded by natural forces they do not comprehend. To their minds there is no past and no future. There is only the everlasting present of a single generation, its trails in the forest, its hidden pathways in the the air and in the sea. There is nothing in the Universe more alone than Man. He has entered into the strange world of history.”

MenWorldMindPastUniverseForceNaturalAnimalHistoryGenerationsAirSeaStrangeForestsEverlastingTrailsPathwaysStrange World
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Your past history and all of your hurts are no longer here in your physical reality. Don't allow them to be here in your mind, muddying your present moments. Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much longer. But all are necessary, otherwise they wouldn't be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.”

LifeMindPlayMomentsCharacterRealityPastMovingLife IsNextHurtRolesHistorySelf HelpLife PhilosophyLetting GoEmbraceMoving OnPresent MomentOur PastYour PastLife Is LikePeople In Your Life
Author:Wayne Dyer
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“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
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“When every fact, every present or past phenomenon of that universe, every phase of present or past life therein, has been examined, classified, and co-ordinated with the rest, then the mission of science will be completed. What is this but saying that the task of science can never end till man ceases to be, till history is no longer made, and development itself ceases?”

MenHas BeensMadeEndsFactsPastScienceUniverseHistoryDevelopmentTasksAccountsMissionsCeasePhenomenonPhasesExaminationPast LifeClassification
Book:The Grammar of Science
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“Concerned to reconstruct past ideas, historians must approach the generation that held them as the anthropologist approaches an alien culture. They must, that is, be prepared at the start to find that natives speak a different language and map experience into different categories from those they themselves bring from home. And they must take as their object the discovery of those categories and the assimilation of the corresponding language.”

IdeasDifferentHomePastScienceCultureSpeakLanguageHistoryGenerationsObjectsApproachDiscoveryConcernedExperiencePreparedAliensMapsCategoriesHistorianBe PreparedAssimilationCorrespondingAnthropologistsDifferent Languages
Book:Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912
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“The alchemists of past centuries tried hard to make the elixir of life: ... Those efforts were in vain; it is not in our power to obtain the experiences and the views of the future by prolonging our lives forward in this direction. However, it is well possible in a certain sense to prolong our lives backwards by acquiring the experiences of those who existed before us and by learning to know their views as well as if we were their contemporaries. The means for doing this is also an elixir of life.”

IfsKnowsLifeWellsMeanHardPastScienceCertainViewsEffortHistoryOur LivesCenturyVainBackwardsAlchemistElixirProlongingElixir Of Life
Author:Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
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“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
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“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”

WorldKindChildrenRealityCareAmericaPastCausesHistoryVirtueModernBirthLosingOneselfCatholicismQuarrelsModern WorldRebelliousHappy EndingsCivicsNonconformity
Book:Memories Of A Catholic Girlhood
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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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“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
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