HISTORY QUOTES VII

quotations about history

History does not belong to us, we belong to it.

HANS-GEORGE GADAMER

Truth and Method


History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

MAYA ANGELOU

On the Pulse of the Morning

Tags: Maya Angelou


People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't.

CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI

Eragon

Tags: Christopher Paolini


Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Time Magazine, Oct. 6, 1952

Tags: Dwight D. Eisenhower


There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.

ISAAC ASIMOV

The Gods Themselves


Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

Tags: Virginia Woolf


History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of collected knowledge, took faith from the solid and availing stuff of our experience. Even if we believe that history is a workwheel powered by human blood--read the speeches of Mussolini--at least we've known the thing together. A single narrative sweep, not ten thousand wisps of disinformation.

DON DELILLO

Underworld

Tags: Don DeLillo


If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Prelude to Foundation

Tags: Isaac Asimov


A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Tags: Robert A. Heinlein


History is philosophy teaching by examples.

THUCYDIDES

The History of the Peloponnesian War

Tags: Thucydides


History is the same thing over and over again.

WOODY ALLEN

interview, Der Spiegel, Jun. 20, 2005


History is about the past. Yet it exists only in the present -- the moment of its creation as history provides us with a narrative constructed after the events with which it is concerned. The narrative must then relate to the moment of its creation as much as its historical subject.

DANA ARNOLD

Reading Architectural History


Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.

FRANK HERBERT

Heretics of Dune

Tags: Frank Herbert


What would happen if history could be rewritten as casually as erasing a blackboard? Our past would be like the shifting sands at the seashore, constantly blown this way or that by the slightest breeze. History would be constantly changing every time someone spun the dial of a time machine and blundered his or her way into the past. History, as we know it, would be impossible. It would cease to exist.

MICHIO KAKU

Hyperspace

Tags: Michio Kaku


History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth.

HOWARD ZINN

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Tags: Howard Zinn


The great historian is he that can distinguish what is done from what happens.

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts

Tags: Ivan Panin


What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end.

JEAN COCTEAU

The Observer, Sep. 22, 1957

Tags: Jean Cocteau


What is a great man who has made his mark upon history? Every time, if we think far enough, he is a man who has looked through the confusion of the moment and has seen the moral issue involved; he is a man who has refused to have his sense of justice distorted; he has listened to his conscience until conscience becomes a trumpet call to like-minded men, so that they gather about him, and together, with mutual purpose and mutual aid, they make a new period in history.

JANE ADDAMS

address to the Union League Club of Chicago, Feb. 23, 1903


To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning. It is a very serious task, young man, and possibly a tragic one.

HERMANN HESSE

The Glass Bead Game

Tags: Hermann Hesse


There is no history worthy attention save that of free nations; the history of nations under the sway of despotism is no more than a collection of anecdotes.

CHAMFORT

The Cynic's Breviary