"The sigh of History rises over ruins, not over landscapes, and in the Antilles there are few ruins to sigh over, apart from the ruins of sugar estates and abandoned forts"

"We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people - history has made us all South Africans"

"The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down"

"History takes time. History makes memory"

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him"

"History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them"

"I take office during the most difficult moment in the country's recent history. The country can be saved - it's up to us. I think it is obvious for those who support this government to undertake the commitment and ensure that our country's euro membership is not endangered"

"But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding"

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past"

"Look, three love affairs in history, are Abelard and Eloise, Romeo and Juliet and the American media and this President at the moment. But this doesn't matter over time. Reality will impinge. If his programs work, he's fine. If it doesn't work, all of the adulation of journalists in the world won't matter"

"Blood alone moves the wheels of history"