HISTORY QUOTES V

quotations about history

Construed as a means instead of an end, history is the weapon with which we defend the future against the past.

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

Lapham's Quarterly, 2008


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

Tags: Anne Brontë


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

Tags: George H. W. Bush


History is a relay of revolutions.

SAUL ALINSKY

Rules for Radicals

Tags: Saul Alinsky


What dependence can I have on the alleged events of ancient history, when I find such difficulty in ascertaining the truth regarding a matter that has taken place only a few minutes ago, and almost in my own presence!

SIR WALTER RALEIGH

attributed, Testimony: Its Posture in the Scientific World


I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth.

BOYD K. PACKER

Faithful History


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

Tags: Carl Sagan


History is not fable agreed upon, but truth disagreed upon.

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts

Tags: Ivan Panin


Good history is a good foundation for a better present and future.

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN

preface, Race and History: Selected Essays 1938-1988


History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.

JOSEPH STALIN

radio address, July 3, 1941


History is a struggle between the "old" right that intended to be just and the "new" that promises to be.

REINHARD BENDIX

Truth and Ideology

Tags: Reinhard Bendix


History, again, tells us of successive civilizations which have been born, have for a space thriven exceedingly, and have then miserably perished.

ARTHUR BALFOUR

Essays and Addresses

Tags: Arthur Balfour


The more we know of history, the less shall we esteem the subjects of it.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

Tags: Charles Caleb Colton


History is more or less bunk.

HENRY FORD

Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1916

Tags: Henry Ford


Each day is a little bit of history.

JOSé SARAMAGO

Baltasar and Blimunda

Tags: José Saramago


The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.

MAO ZEDONG

"On Coalition Government", Apr. 24, 1945


Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

H.G. WELLS

The Outline of History

Tags: H. G. Wells


History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline.

JOHN UPDIKE

Rabbit is Rich

Tags: John Updike


History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

JULIAN BARNES

The Sense of an Ending

Tags: Julian Barnes


History, which is a simple whore, has no decisive moments but is a proliferation of instants, brief interludes that vie with one another in monstrousness.

ROBERTO BOLAÑO

2666

Tags: Roberto Bolaño