History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
—Common Proverb
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians.
—Samuel Butler
I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
History is a race between education and catastrophe.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
History is one of the most remarkable things in our lives. The mere fact it occurred makes it remarkable.
—Unknown
The pyramids, attached with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
The men who make history have not time to write it.
—Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich (1773–1859) Austrian Political leader, Politician
You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
Human history in essence is the history of ideas.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
Providence conceals itself in the details of human affairs, but becomes unveiled in the generalities of history.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. Weeven we herehold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Historian—an unsuccessful novelist.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind and which we naively expect to find at the end of our errors. Childish presumption which justifies the fact that child-nations, inheriting our follies, are now directing our history.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.
—Unknown