History Quotes

"History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals"

"There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world"

Karl Popper, Philosopher

"I think there was a revolution in poetry, associated chiefly with Eliot and Pound; but maybe it is of the nature of revolutions or of the nature of history that their innovations should later come to look trivial or indistinguishable from technical tricks"

Howard Nemerov, Poet

"Is there in all the history of human folly a greater fool than a clergymen in politics?"

Pat Robertson, Clergyman

"Only through acknowledgment of the erasure and void of Jewish life can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future"

Daniel Libeskind, Architect

"In an age where history is recorded on T-shirts, the very notion of dwelling on the deep structure of an experience has come to appear both arcane and archaic"

Thomas Harrison

"To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it"

Daniel Libeskind, Architect

"I focused on where she was from of course, her voice and her history, her relationship with God - her religion. This was probably the strongest relationship she has had, really. She never seemed to maintain close relationships with husbands"

Gretchen Mol, Actress

"Even of if a certain backlash is unavoidable, we must make the most of the momentous chance with which history has presented us so swiftly and so unexpectedly"

Moshe Sharett, Statesman

"But I think mainly, you know, just up in the East Coast, it's where it all originated. You know, Philadelphia. It goes back to the beginning. So, you know, fans have a lot of history, and they love their teams up here"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"History is the key to everything: politics, religion, even fashion"

Eva Herzigova, Model

"The main thing is to make history, not to write it"

Otto von Bismarck, Leader

"There's a lot of history in Boston and a lot of history, obviously, in New York with all the championships"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"I wish that they had the freedoms like the Japanese and the Koreans and the Mexicans and everybody else that has that freedom to come over here and play the game, because I know Cuba has a very strong baseball history"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"Life is a wonderful thing to talk about, or to read about in history books - but it is terrible when one has to live it"

Jean Anouilh, Playwright

"They try to say this era was a tainted era. But so many great players played in the last 15 to 20 years. This is going to be the best era in the history of the game in my opinion"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"Gender consciousness has become involved in almost every intellectual field: history, literature, science, anthropology. There's been an extraordinary advance"

Clifford Geertz, Scientist

"In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better"

Edward de Bono, Psychologist

"History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's one of the ways of dealing with our world with impossible generalities which we couldn't live without"

Howard Nemerov, Poet

"I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening"

Jerzy Kosinski, Novelist

"Since creation of the E.U. a half century ago, Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history"

John Bruton, Politician

"For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington"

Bill Moyers, Journalist

"If we got into a situation where people start burning our records, then bring it on. That's the whole point. The gloaming has begun. We're in the darkness. This has happened before. Go read some history"

Thom Yorke, Musician

"So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system"

Milton Friedman, Economist

"There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made"

Michelle Obama, First Lady

"Most foreign policies that history has marked highly, in whatever country, have been originated by leaders who were opposed by experts"

Henry A. Kissinger, Statesman

"Whatever can be noted historically can be found within history"

Martin Heidegger, Philosopher

"History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times"

Gustave Flaubert, Novelist

"It is my aim, and every effort bent, that the sum and history of my life, which in the same sentence is my obit and epitaph too, shall be them both: He made the books and he died"

William Faulkner, Novelist

"History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition"

Milton Friedman, Economist

"But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history"

Martin Heidegger, Philosopher

"Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do"

Paul Simon, Musician

"I realized that I had traveled to Havana during what now seems like the childhood of the Cuban Revolution, if you think that Fidel has now been in power for 44 extremely long years. I started looking at the revolution as history, and not as part of the daily news"

Alma Guillermoprieto, Journalist

"The oppressed peoples can liberate themselves only through struggle. This is a simple and clear truth confirmed by history"

Kim Il-sung, Leader

"Some scholars have been arguing that a civilizational clash between organized religions is the next step in human history"

Mary Douglas, Scientist

"What happens in the music business is that if you step out of your little spot to do something else, the sand falls right into where you stood and you're gone, you're history"

Nancy Sinatra, Musician

"The claim of the State Socialists, however, that this right would not be exercised in matters pertaining to the individual in the more intimate and private relations of his life is not borne out by the history of governments"

Benjamin Tucker, Activist

"The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards"

Felix Frankfurter, Judge

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