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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“History is fond of her grandchildren, for it offers them the marrow of the bones, which the previous generation had hurt its hands in breaking.”

Hands Hurt History Generations Offers Bones Grandchildren Posterity Marrow Previous Generations

Author:Nikolay Chernyshevsky

“This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.”

Men Want Feels Should Action Opinion History Records Expression Office Chiefs Dread Virtuous Rescue Oblivion Posterity Infamous Depraved

Author:Tacitus

“Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth and the accidents of his life never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely have preferred the groves of the Academy and the society of Athens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwards by the injustice of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the dangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable to the world and to posterity for the happiness of millions.”

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 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)

“Never is a historic deed already completed when it is done but always only when it is handed down to posterity. What we call "history" by no means represents the sum total of all significant deeds.... World historyonly comprises that tiny lighted sector which chanced to be placed in the spotlight by poetic or scholarly depictions.”

World Mean Done History Deeds Tiny Significant Poetic Historic World History Posterity Spotlight Scholarly Depiction

Author:Stefan Zweig

“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”

Knows Use Freedom History Know How Generations Cost Preserves Patriotic Posterity Your Freedom

Book:The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784

Source: The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

People Inspirational Looks Memories Family History Historian Temper Ancestor Backwards Posterity Ancestry Family History Genealogy

Author:Edmund Burke

“This I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.”

Action Evil History Highest Function Regard Terror Deeds Worthy Posterity

Book:The Annals & The Histories

Source: The Annals & The Histories

“We must not look at the past with the enormous condescension of posterity.”

Looks Past History Enormous Posterity Condescension

Author:E. P. Thompson

“It is in times of difficulty that great nations like great men display the whole energy of their character and become an object of admiration to posterity.”

Men Whole Character Energy Nations History Objects Difficulty Great Men Admiration Display Posterity Great Nations

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“Psychoanalytic theory is the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century and a terminal product as well-something akin to a dinosaur or zeppelin in the history of ideas, a vast structure of radically unsound design and with no posterity.”

Wells Ideas Science History Century Design Products Theory Intellectual Structure Tricks Twentieth Century Posterity Dinosaurs Zeppelins Terminal Psychoanalytic

Author:Peter Medawar