World History Quotes

• We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre.

  Dick Gregory

  Book, Thinking, Roots

  Dick Gregory, Robert Lipsyte (1990). “Nigger”, p.39, Simon and Schuster

  87 Copy quote

  Show source

• The history of the world is none other than the progress of the , consciousness of freedom.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Wisdom, Freedom, History

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2012). “The Philosophy of History”, p.19, Courier Corporation

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

  Aldous Huxley

  Learning, Health, Men

  Collected Essays (1959) "Case of Voluntary Ignorance"

  161 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

  1217 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

  Winston Churchill

  Determination, Military, War

  Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

  125 Copy quote

  Show source

• Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

  H. L. Mencken

  History, Historical, Novelists

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

  56 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

  Neil Armstrong

  Motivational, Positive, Moon

  In New York Times 31 July 1969, p. 20

  150 Copy quote

  Show source

• No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Men, Greatness, History

  On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic "The Hero as Divinity" (1841)

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

  Mark Twain

  Sad, Writing History, Historical

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.54, St. Martin's Press

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's a major part of world history that men are trying to kill each other. It's just one slaughter after the other. We talk about it, but no one's really listening.

  Fred Ward

  Men, Talking, Listening

  6 Copy quote

• We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

  John F. Kennedy

  Life, History, Permit

  Speech to the Forth Worth Chamber of Commerce, delivered 22 November 1963

  11 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

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

  Mao Zedong

  Chinese Revolution, People, History

  Zedong Mao (1972). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”, p.118, China Books

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the case of various kinds of knowledge, we find that what in former days occupied the energies of men of mature mental ability sinks to the level of information, exercises, and even pastimes for children; and in this educational progress we can see the history of the world's culture delineated in faint outline.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Children, Educational, Knowledge

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sir James Black Baillie (1931). “The Phenomenology of Mind”, p.16, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Spiritual, Strong, Truth

  Albert Schweitzer (2014). “Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century”, p.26, Open Road Media

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

  Robert Kennedy

  Change, Courage, Creativity

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

  James A. Baldwin

  Wisdom, People, History

  "Justice at last?" by Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com. June 5, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages...onward, to victory!

  Joseph Stalin

  Change, War, Fighting

  89 Copy quote

• we are the ones we have been waiting for

  Alice Walker

  Change, Confidence, Life Changing

  Alice Walker (2013). “The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker”, p.342, The New Press

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

• History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Lying, History, Soldier

  Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 161

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

  Robert Kennedy

  Change, Hope, Courage

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

  225 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Life, Graduation

  Speech at Mansion House, London, 10 Nov. 1942.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Positive, Badass

  70 Copy quote

• In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.

  Theodore Bikel

  Song, Art, Play

  “Theodore Bikel, 'Fiddler on the Roof' Star, Dies at 91” by Duane Byrge , Alex Ben Block, www.hollywoodreporter.com. June 21, 2015.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• In my world, history comes down to language and art.

  Theodore Bikel

  Art, World, Language

  “Theodore Bikel, 'Fiddler on the Roof' Star, Dies at 91” by Duane Byrge , Alex Ben Block, www.hollywoodreporter.com. July 21, 2015.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• World history is a court of judgment.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Philosophical, History, World

  6 Copy quote