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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“It's really hard for me to use the term 'history' in the singular, because it suggests a reductivist view of how moments and events congeal and reflect the passage of time. I'd rather stick to the pluralness of 'histories' in order to suggest the simultaneity, the parallel forces at work, which produce lived experience.”

Hard Moments Use Order Force Term Views History Events Produce Sticks Passages Parallels Passage Of Time

Author:Barbara Kruger

“war with poison and chemicals was not so rare in the ancient world ... An astounding panoply of toxic substances, venomous creatures, poison plants, animals and insects, deleterious environments, virulent pathogens, infectious agents, noxious gases, and combustible chemicals were marshalled to defeat foes - and panoply is an apt term here, because it is the ancient Greek word for 'all weapons.”

Source: Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World

“I'll tell you...why Wonder Woman worked. Or Bionic Woman. Or any of those [shows] really. It was because it wasn't about brawn...it was about brains. And yes, she happened to be beautiful, she happened to be kind of extraordinary in some way, but she wasn't a guy. And I think that, [now], they...put out a female hero, and all they are doing is changing the costume from a man to a woman...they're not showcasing any of the tremendous dichotomies than women possess in term of softness and toughness, sweetness and grit, inner and outer strength.”

“Americans, more than most people, believe that history is the result of individual decisions to implement conscious intentions. For Americans, more than most people, history has been that.... This sense of openness, of possibility and autonomy, has been a national asset as precious as the topsoil of the Middle West. But like topsoil, it is subject to erosion; it requires tending. And it is not bad for Americans to come to terms with the fact that for them too, history is a story of inertia and the unforeseen.”

People Believe Has Beens Facts Stories Individual Term Decision Results History Middle Subjects Possibility Conscious Intention West Assets Openness Autonomy Inertia Erosion Unforeseen Topsoil

Author:George Will

“Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.”

People Past Nations Term History Produce Historical Contradiction Justify Historian

Author:Eric Hobsbawm

“In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.”

Men Long Has Beens War Reality Term Religious History Conflict Long Term Nature Of Man Religious Wars Religion War Religion And War Religious Conflict Causes Of Conflict

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“It is very remarkable that while the words Eternal, Eternity, Forever, are constantly in our mouths, and applied without hesitation, we yet experience considerable difficulty in contemplating any definite term which bears a very large proportion to the brief cycles of our petty chronicles. There are many minds that would not for an instant doubt the God of Nature to have existed from all Eternity, and would yet reject as preposterous the idea of going back a million of years in the History of His Works. Yet what is a million, or a million million, of solar revolutions to an Eternity?”

“History, human or geological, represents our hypothesis, couched in terms of past events, devised to explain our present-day observations.”

Humans Past Science Term History Events Observation Hypothesis Present Day Past Events

Author:M. King Hubbert

“In the expressions we adopt to prescribe physical phenomena we necessarily hover between two extremes. We either have to choose a word which implies more than we can prove, or we have to use vague and general terms which hide the essential point, instead of bringing it out. The history of electrical theories furnishes a good example.”

Two Use Science Term History Example Expression Theory Prove Essentials Extremes Vague Electrical Good Examples Nomenclature Two Extremes

Author:Arthur Schuster

“Hitler was no inexorable product of a German 'special path', no logical culmination of long-term trends in specifically German culture and ideology. Nor was he a mere 'accident' in the course of German history.”

Long Culture Courses Term History Path Special Products Mere Accidents Ideology Long Term Logical Trends Nazism Nazi Germany Inexorable Culmination German History

Book:Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris

Source: Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris

“The Reichswirtschaftsministerium ('Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs') tells the shop managers what and how to produce, at what prices and from whom to buy, at what prices and to whom to sell. It assigns every worker to his job and fixes his wages. It decrees to whom and on what terms the capitalists must entrust their funds. Market exchange is merely a sham.”

Jobs Term History Economic Produce Sells Workers Affair Managers Shops Fund Capitalist Ministry Wages Nazism Decree Nazi Germany

Author:Ludwig von Mises