Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
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
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.
—Unknown
The men who make history have not time to write it.
—Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich (1773–1859) Austrian Political leader, Politician
Reading maketh a full man; conference, a ready man: histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
The first duty of an historian is to be on guard against his own sympathies.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
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
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
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
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
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
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
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
And having wisdom with each studious year, in meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, and shaped his weapon with an edge severe, sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
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 Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
History is a race between education and catastrophe.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
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
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
History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
It’s clear that something must be done about the effectively disruptive tactics of anarchistic handfuls (at political rallies). Handling the occasional heckler is a storied, valuable art in politics; but a militant group of grubs (have) announced their determination to rape the right of candidates to be heard and of citizens to hear. Far, far too often these stinky finkies succeeded…. Free speech is the first requisite of freedom and a viable, functioning democracy. The exercise of it cannot be at the option of those who think the right to dissent includes the right to destroy.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Historian—an unsuccessful novelist.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
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
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
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