quotations about history
History is not fable agreed upon, but truth disagreed upon.
IVAN PANIN
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Thoughts
Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
There are singular moments in history, dates that divide all that goes before from all that comes after.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH
State of the Union Address, Jan. 31, 1990
All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.
ANNE BRONTE
Agnes Grey
History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
The Life of Reason
The history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The Deerslayer
Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique. But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape decades or centuries.
RICHARD NIXON
Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1969
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
H.G. WELLS
The Outline of History
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us.
CARL SAGAN
The Demon-Haunted World
What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end.
JEAN COCTEAU
The Observer, Sep. 22, 1957
History is a relay of revolutions.
SAUL ALINSKY
Rules for Radicals
I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life.
TONI MORRISON
Time interview, Jan. 21, 1998
I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth.
BOYD K. PACKER
Faithful History
History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.
JOSEPH STALIN
radio address, July 3, 1941
People are absolutely haunted by [history]. You can see it at the swap meets.
PAMELA LANSDEN
"It's Monterey, Jack", Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1997
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors and issues.
T.S. ELIOT
Gerontion
History hath triumphed over time, which beside it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
WALTER RALEIGH
preface, History of the World
Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.
ZADIE SMITH
White Teeth
History is more or less bunk.
HENRY FORD
Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1916