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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“Most history is a record of the triumphs, disasters, and follies of top people. The black hole in it is the way of life of mute, inglorious men and women who make no nuisance of themselves in the world.”

People Men World Way Black History Records Men And Women Disaster Holes Triumph Folly World History Mute Black Hole Nuisance

Author:Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel

“The triumph of the Confederacy... would be a victory for the powers of evil which would give courage to the enemies of progress and damp the sprits of its friends all over the civilized world... [The American Civil War] is destined to be a turning point, for good or evil, of the course of human affairs.”

World Giving Humans War Would Be Courses Evil Enemy History Progress Victory Affair Triumph Civil War Civilized Destined American Civil War Turning Points Damp Enemy Of Progress

Author:John Stuart Mill

“But this inestimable privilege was soon violated: with the knowledge of truth the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the catholic church were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of Christianity. Constantine easily believed that the heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a seasonable application of moderate severities might save those unhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation.”

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

“The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet without the knowledge of their indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair; a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit.”

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

“The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason. The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man's mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism - a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom.”

Source: The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution

“Against my will, I became a witness to the most terrible defeat of reason and to the most savage triumph of brutality ever chroniclednever before did a generation suffer such a moral setback after it had attained such intellectual heights.”

Reason Suffering Moral History Generations Terrible Intellectual Defeat Witness Triumph Height Savages Brutality Setback

Author:Stefan Zweig

“I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.”

Men Trying Years Believe Stills Two Lasts I Believe History Havens Changed Thousand Consequence Triumph Spite Thousand Years

Book:Civilization

Source: Civilization

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God.”

“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.”

Years Class History Struggle Civilization Triumph Class Struggle

Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung

Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung

“Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.”

People Facts Helping Force Interest History Danger Gains Determination Graves Inevitable Triumph Territory Hostility World War 2 Armed Forces Infamy December 7

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes... The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses... In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his statues, and his triumphs defy the desecration of time and the judgment of history.”

“There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.”

Ifs Would Be Romance Science Stuff History Novel Written Development Battle Despair Lonely Filled Genuine Triumph Giants Gamble Pioneers Typewriters Clumsy Dwarfs

Author:J. B. Priestley