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History Quotes

Browse 6202 quotes about History.

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History Quotes

“But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral of physical government of the world.”

WorldGovernmentMoralHistoryStudyOrdinaryAwfulUnconsciousOccupationRomeSageGreeceRoman EmpireAlterationsGreece And Rome
Book: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
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“Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues.”

SometimesSpiritHistoryVirtueStudyPrideHeroReflectionAdvantageFortuneSlaveAncientDareWorthyTyrantsThronesSageDefectsRoman EmpireCensureCapriceNot WorthyInsensible
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)
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“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.”

YearsMeanMatterFactsTogetherLawScienceNightValuesInterestHistoryKnowingStudyPossibilityPositionParticularPlanetsMassAccountsHistoricalProfoundSimplicityDetailsWorthyAstronomyMasteryEvery NightSplendourIntrinsic ValueGravitationHistorical Facts
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“To each eye, perhaps, the outlines of a great civilization present a different picture. In the wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions are many; and the same studies which have served for my work might easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application, but lead to essentially different conclusions.”

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Author:Jacob Burckhardt
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“Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of those who took part in them. He must himself be, as it were, a sharer or a spectator of the action he describes.”

MayWholeCharacterFactsActionSpiritHistoryStudyTakenMinutesSpecialEventsHabitResearchPatientMannersNarrativeFaithfulnessSpectatorsUntrueNarratorsExactness
Book:France and England in North America: Pioneers of France in the New World. The Jesuits of North America in the seventeenth century. La Salle and the discovery of the Great West. The old régime in Canada
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“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid.”

InspirationalMindHumansCountryWisdomMotivationalHistoryStudyRecordsExampleFineWise WordsWords Of WisdomModelsExperienceSickInfiniteMedicineVarietyFinding YourselfWarningAvoidingHuman ExperienceRottenFine Things
Book:The History of Early Rome
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“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.”

MenHumansPhilosophyStrongHistoryStudyWiseHuman NatureHe ManWeakSillyTrialsIncidentsUs History
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person's life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.”

PeopleWayShouldPersonsPhilosophyScienceLife IsNaturalOpinionHistoryStudyEnvironmentEffectsSeriousHard WorkActivityCreatingAspectEnvironmentalCommittedPrimariesReachingAvenuesProtectiveEnvironmentalistNatural History
Author:Roger Tory Peterson
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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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“"The Universe repeats itself, with the possible exception of history." Of all earthly studies history is the only one that does not repeat itself. ... Astronomy repeats itself; botany repeats itself; trigonometry repeats itself; mechanics repeats itself; compound long division repeats itself. Every sum if worked out in the same way at any time will bring out the same answer. ... A great many moderns say that history is a science; if so it occupies a solitary and splendid elevation among the sciences; it is the only science the conclusions of which are always wrong.”

IfsWayLongDoeScienceUniverseAnswersHistoryStudyPossibilityAccountsAstronomyConclusionRepeatsGreat MenExceptionDivisionSolitaryMechanicSplendidCompoundsElevationAlways WrongBotanyTrigonometry
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“The earth's becoming at a particular period the residence of human beings, was an era in the moral, not in the physical world, that our study and contemplation of the earth, and the laws which govern its animate productions, ought no more to be considered in the light of a disturbance or deviation from the system, than the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter should be regarded as a physical event in the history of those heavenly bodies, however influential they may have become from that time in advancing the progress of sound philosophy among men.”

MenWorldShouldHumansMayPhilosophyBodyLightEarthLawScienceSoundHuman BeingsMoralHistoryStudyProgressEventsParticularOughtBecomingPeriodsDiscoveryProductionsErasContemplationHeavenlyInfluentialAdvancingDisturbanceSatellitesJupiterResidenceDeviationHeavenly Bodies
Book:Principles of Geology
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“The more I study the things of the mind the more mathematical I find them. In them as in mathematics it is a question of quantities; they must be treated with precision. I have never had more satisfaction than in proving this in the realms of art, politics and history.”

MindArtScienceHistoryStudyProveMathematicsSatisfactionTreatedMathematicalRealmsTreatmentQuantityPrecision
Book:Life and Letters of H. Taine: 1870-1892
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“A multidisciplinary study group ... estimated that it would be 1980 before developments in artificial intelligence make it possible for machines alone to do much thinking or problem solving of military significance. That would leave, say, five years to develop man-computer symbiosis and 15 years to use it. The 15 may be 10 or 500, but those years should be intellectually the most creative and exciting in the history of mankind.”

ThinkingMenShouldYearsMayUseProblemWould BeScienceHistoryCreativeStudyFiveGroupsMankindMilitaryDevelopmentComputerIntellectualMachinesExcitingFive YearsSignificanceArtificial IntelligenceArtificialProblem SolvingSymbiosisStudy GroupMultidisciplinary
Book:In memoriam, J.C.R. Licklider, 1915-1990
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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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