History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot.
—Simon Schama (b.1945) British Historian, Professor
History is a better guide than good intentions.
—Jeane Kirkpatrick (1926–2006) American Diplomat, Academic
To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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
History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
—Common Proverb
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.
—Unknown
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
History is one of the most remarkable things in our lives. The mere fact it occurred makes it remarkable.
—Unknown
We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear-bought experience.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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
The pyramids, attached with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
The men who make history have not time to write it.
—Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich (1773–1859) Austrian Diplomat, Statesman
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
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
Historian. A broad—gauge gossip.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Human history in essence is the history of ideas.
—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
Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.
—African Proverb
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
God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians.
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902) British Victorian Novelist, Essayist, Critic
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
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
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