HISTORY QUOTES

quotations about history

We cannot escape history.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

annual message, Dec. 1, 1862

Tags: Abraham Lincoln


The best history doesn't just sit behind a glass case; it helps us to understand what's outside the case.

BARACK OBAMA

remarks at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., September 24, 2016

Tags: Barack Obama


History allows us to see the obvious -- but unfortunately, not until it is too late.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Dune: House Atreides

Tags: Brian Herbert


More history is made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills and proclamations.

JOHN BARTH

attributed, Words from the Wise

Tags: John Barth


The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: Walter Bagehot


Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.

MASON COOLEY

City Aphorisms

Tags: Mason Cooley


Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind is unteachable?

WINSTON CHURCHILL

speech at Zurich University, Sep. 19, 1946

Tags: Winston Churchill


That's one of the central problems of history, isn't it, sir? The question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us.

JULIAN BARNES

The Sense of an Ending

Tags: Julian Barnes


History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe.

FRANK HERBERT

God Emperor of Dune

Tags: Frank Herbert


Great men are the inspired texts of that divine Book of Revelations, whereof a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named History.

THOMAS CARLYLE

Sartor Resartus

Tags: Thomas Carlyle


Today is Yesterday's Pupil.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1751

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


The facts of history have been too well rehearsed.

JOHN ASHBERY

"The System,", Three Poems

Tags: John Ashbery


The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

MARK TWAIN

Following the Equator

Tags: Mark Twain


Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are. But history, like sanctity, can reside in the heart; it is enough that there is something there.

V. S. NAIPAUL

The Enigma of Arrival

Tags: V. S. Naipaul


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

GEORGE SANTAYANA

The Life of Reason

Tags: George Santayana


And history with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page.

LORD BYRON

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Tags: Lord Byron


History is like a bloodstain that keeps on showing on the wall no matter how many new owners take possession, no matter how many times we paint over it.

PETER CAREY

attributed, Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America

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No matter how carefully records are kept and filed and computerized, they grow fuzzy with time. Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate--like dust. The longer the time lapse, the dustier the history--until it degenerates into fables.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Foundation's Edge

Tags: Isaac Asimov


Human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.

HOWARD ZINN

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

Tags: Howard Zinn


History is a bath of blood.

WILLIAM JAMES

The Moral Equivalent of War

Tags: William James