History Quotes

"History is the science of things which are not repeated"

"No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture"

"No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it"

Alfred North Whitehead, Mathematician

"I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way"

George W. Bush, President

"Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us"

George W. Bush, President

"For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders"

Margaret Mead, Scientist

"The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it"

George W. Bush, President

"Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis"

John Dewey, Philosopher

"History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man"

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet

"The becoming of man is the history of the exhaustion of his possibilities"

Susan Sontag, Author

"Might does not make right, it only makes history"

Jim Fiebig, Businessman

"Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe"

Susan Sontag, Author

"Legend remains victorious in spite of history"

Sarah Bernhardt, Actress

"There are a whole lot of historical factors that have played a part in our being where we are today, and I think that to even to begin to understand our contemporary issues and contemporary problems, you have to understand a little bit about that history"

Wilma Mankiller, Statesman

"Pearl Harbor caused our Nation to wholeheartedly commit to winning World War II, changing the course of our Nation's history and the world's future"

Joe Baca, Politician

"Mr. Speaker, we have reached a point in history where some have forgotten that it is the family, not the government, that is the fundamental building block of our society"

Jim Ryun, Athlete

"I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president - with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln - just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we've got a lot more work to do. And we're gonna keep on at it"

Barack Obama, President

"The main essentials of a successful prime minister are sleep and a sense of history"

Harold Wilson, Statesman

"I go into my library and all history unrolls before me"

Alexander Smith, Poet

"Then I despair... I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it always"

Andre Malraux, Author

"There is little evidence that our individual intelligence has improved through recorded history"

James Lovelock, Scientist

"There aren't just bad people that commit genocide; we are all capable of it. It's our evolutionary history"

James Lovelock, Scientist

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten"

Rudyard Kipling, Writer

"Just touching that old tree was truly moving to me because when you touch these trees, you have such a sense of the passage of time, of history. It's like you're touching the essence, the very substance of life"

Kim Novak, Actress

"The script was always the most important thing to me and I loved the script. For one thing, I've always admired trees. I just worship them. Think what trees have witnessed, what history, such as living through the Civil War, yet they still survive"

Kim Novak, Actress

"If our history can challenge the next wave of musicians to keep moving and changing, to keep spiritually hungry and horny, that's what it's all about"

Carlos Santana, Musician

"History keeps her secrets longer than most of us. But she has one secret that I will reveal to you tonight in the greatest confidence. Sometimes there are no winners at all. And sometimes nobody needs to lose"

John Le Carre, Author

"If the history of the past fifty years teaches us anything, it is that peace does not follow disarmament - disarmament follows peace"

Bernard Baruch, Businessman

"The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny"

Jimmy Carter, President

"Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people"

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots"

Marcus Garvey, Publisher

"The three greatest fools (majaderos) of history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote - and I!"

Simon Bolivar, Leader

"What happens when good people are put into an evil place? Do they triumph or does the situation dominate their past history and morality?"

Philip Zimbardo, Psychologist

"At the first general meeting of this Corporation in 1820, his Lordship presided; a circumstance, which may well be considered an era in the history of the Church of Upper Canada"

John Strachan, Clergyman