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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“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.”

WorldGivingHumansWarWould BeCoursesEvilEnemyHistoryProgressVictoryAffairTriumphCivil WarCivilizedDestinedAmerican Civil WarTurning PointsDampEnemy Of Progress
Author:John Stuart Mill
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“Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire.”

StillsCountryWould BePowerfulHistoryProveArchitectureRuinsSufficientSeatsEmpiresOver ItPoliteMonumentProvincesRoman EmpireBarbarismMajestic
Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the Syrians.”

PeopleIfsMadeCharacterWould BeHistoryClimateSatisfactionEastMannersGreekEnjoymentProductiveMutualWarmthLivelyRoman EmpireFlatteredSoftnessHereditaryTranquillityOpulenceConnexionAntioch
Book:The Student's Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“As a novelist, I cannot occupy myself with "characters," or at any rate central ones, who lack panache, in one or another sense, who would be incapable of a major action or a major passion, or who have not a touch of the ambiguity, the ultimate unaccountability, the enlarging mistiness of persons "in history." History, as more austerely I now know it, is not romantic. But I am.”

KnowsPersonsCharacterWould BeActionRomancePassionHistoryMajorsUltimateRateNovelistsIncapableAmbiguityPanache
Author:Elizabeth Bowen
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“A lot of Democrats have said that raising the minimum wage is both good economics and good politics. The nonpartisan CBO issued a report today saying that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cost the economy about 500,000 jobs...Why should we trust Democrats on anything when they couldn't have foreseen that this would be the case?”

ShouldSaidRealityWould BeTodayJobsPoliticalPoliticsCommunityHoursWorkMoneyPartyPovertyHistoryCasesEconomyPolicyCostCapitalismEconomicsDemocratIdeologyReportsMinimumPolitical PartiesMinimum WagePartisanshipForeseen
Author:S. E. Cupp
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“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

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Author:Ronald Reagan
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“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

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Book:Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963
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“An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.”

HumansWellsMightWould BeAgeEarthScienceGrowsHuman BeingsHistoryProgressYouthPlanetsEvolutionPerfectionTwentiesPhilosopherExtrasWiserTwenty OneGeneralizationHuman EvolutionGeneralisation
Book:Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections
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“The chemical differences among various species and genera of animals and plants are certainly as significant for the history of their origins as the differences in form. If we could define clearly the differences in molecular constitution and functions of different kinds of organisms, there would be possible a more illuminating and deeper understanding of question of the evolutionary reactions of organisms than could ever be expected from morphological considerations.”

IfsKindDifferentWould BeFormScienceUnderstandingDifferencesAnimalHistoryEvolutionFunctionConstitutionPlantSpeciesVariousDeeperExpectedSignificantReactionsConsiderationChemicalsDifferent KindsOrganismsIlluminatingDeeper Understanding
Author:Ray Lankester
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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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“How strange it would be if the final theory were to be discovered in our lifetimes! The discovery of the final laws of nature will mark a discontinuity in human intellectual history, the sharpest that has occurred since the beginning of modern science in the seventeenth century. Can we now imagine what that would be like?”

IfsHumansWould BeLawScienceHistoryImagineModernCenturyStrangeTheoryIntellectualDiscoveryMarkLifetimeFinalsLaws Of NatureModern ScienceDiscontinuity
Book:Dreams of a Final Theory
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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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“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.”

IfsWould BeRomanceScienceStuffHistoryNovelWrittenDevelopmentBattleDespairLonelyFilledGenuineTriumphGiantsGamblePioneersTypewritersClumsyDwarfs
Author:J. B. Priestley
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“Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom.”

IfsYearsMightWould BeOpportunityHistoryConditionsComfortSlaveDeniedImperfectFidelityDiligenceRoman EmpireRendering
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
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