History Quotes - Page 38

• History in general is a collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes among which we have now and then met with a few virtues, and some happy times.

  Voltaire

  Happy Times, Virtue, Now And Then

  Voltaire, John Morley, William F. Fleming, Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh (1904). “The Works of Voltaire: Ancient and modern history”

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• More and more, I tend to read history. I often find it more up to date than the daily newspapers.

  Joe Murray

  Newspapers, Up To Date

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• All the arts are brothers; each one is a light to the others.

  Voltaire

  Art, Brother, Philosophy

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• History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.

  Voltaire

  Climbing, Boots, Slippers

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• Not a stone but has its history.

  Lucan

  Stones

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• The Thames is liquid history.

  John Burns

  Liquid, Thames

  To an American who had compared the Thames disparagingly with the Mississippi, in 'Daily Mail' 25 January 1943

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• Societies that do not eat people are fascinated by those that do.

  Ronald Wright

  People, Society, Fascinated

  Ronald Wright (1986). “On Fiji Islands”, New York, N.Y. : Viking

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• History tells us more than we want to know about what is wrong with man, and we can hardly turn a page in the daily press without learning the specific time, place, and name of evil. But perhaps the most pervasive evil of all rarely appears in the news. This evil, the waste of human potential, is particularly painful to recognize for it strikes our parents and children, our friends and brothers, ourselves.

  George Leonard

  Brother, Children, Men

  George Leonard (1987). “Education and Ecstasy: With, "The Great School Reform Hoax"”, p.23, North Atlantic Books

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• I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.

  Kenneth Clark

  Believe, Men, Years

  Kenneth Clark, British Broadcasting Corporation (1970). “Civilization”, London : British Broadcasting Corporation

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• What most impresses us about great jurists is not their tenacious grasps of fine points, honed almost to invisibility; it is the moment when we are suddently aware of the sweep and direction of the law, and its place in the lives of men.

  Irving Kaufman

  Men, Law, Invisibility

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• 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

  Men, Mind, Events

  Francis Bacon (1753). “The Works...”, p.42

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• Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period with a very critical eye.

  Paul Johnson

  Eye, Views, Definitions

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• Our union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war.

  James Buchanan

  War, Blood, Public Opinion

  James Buchanan (2006). “State of the Union Addresses”, p.279, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• history ... a sort of immortality turned upside down. Her life stretched backwards through ten centuries.

  Marthe Bibesco

  Upside Down, Immortality, Century

  Marthe Bibesco (1928). “Catherine-Paris”

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• Now is history as fast as the mind remembers.

  Kirby Wright

  Mind, Remember

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The errors of former times are recorded for our instruction in order that we may avoid their repition.

  William E. Gladstone

  Errors, Order, May

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• This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Hurt, Heart, Mind

  Address Upon Taking the Oath of the U.S. Presidency, delivered 9 August 1974 East Room of the White House, Washington, D.C.

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• I joined a gym recently. I don't have the best history in the world of sticking with my fitness regimens, but I feel like this time's gonna be different. I figure one of two things is gonna happen: either I'll get into shape, or I'll just resign myself to paying an $85 a month fat tax.

  Christian Finnegan

  Two, Different, World

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• Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain - and since labor is pain in itself - it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it. When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor. It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Pain, Men, Law

  "La Loi (The Law)". Book by Frederic Bastiat, 1850.

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• Man's history has been graven on the rock of Egypt, stamped on the brick of Assyria, enshrined in the marble of the Parthenon-it rises before us a majestic presence in the piled up arches of the Coliseum-it lurks an unsuspected treasure amid the oblivious dust of archives and monasteries-it is embodied in all the looms of religions, of races, of families.

  Charles Thomas Newton

  Science, Men, Race

  Charles Thomas Newton (2010). “Essays on Art and Archaeology”, p.1, Cambridge University Press

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• I find it hard even now not to look on your North African strategy with a jaundiced eye. Cross Channel operations for the liberation of France and advance on Germany, we should finish the war quicker. Yes, probably, but not the way we hope to finish it.

  George C. Marshall

  War, Eye, France

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• Memmius would only be useless to him for a short time, but that he would remain useless to himself and the Republic forever.

  Scipio Africanus

  Forever, Historical, Useless

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• ...scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step. You can do it very young...there is no mastery, old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature...Its a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are.

  Michael Crichton

  Humility, Discipline, People

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• History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

  Lord Acton

  Suffering, Penalties, Compensation

  "Historical Essays and Studies". Book by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, oll.libertyfund.org. 1907.

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• Great necessities call out great virtues.

  Abigail Adams

  Inspirational, Retirement, Women

  Letter to John Quincy Adams, 19 Jan. 1780

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