Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on History

History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.
Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author

To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood.
Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian—ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.
Lytton Strachey (1880–1932) British Biographer, Essayist

All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher

History is a race between education and catastrophe.
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker

Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright

History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides (c.455?c.400 BCE) Greek Historian

History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.
James A. Garfield (1831–81) American Head of State, Lawyer, Educator

History is a myth that men agree to believe.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

History, by appraising. ..[the students] of the past, will enable them to judge of the future.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

The best thing which we derive from history is the enthusiasm that it raises in us.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet

Posterity gives every man his true value.
Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian

Historian—an unsuccessful novelist.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic

Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted from the past.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
Haile Selassie

It’s clear that something must be done about the effectively disruptive tactics of anarchistic handfuls (at political rallies). Handling the occasional heckler is a storied, valuable art in politics; but a militant group of grubs (have) announced their determination to rape the right of candidates to be heard and of citizens to hear. Far, far too often these stinky finkies succeeded…. Free speech is the first requisite of freedom and a viable, functioning democracy. The exercise of it cannot be at the option of those who think the right to dissent includes the right to destroy.
Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist

The future of nations cannot be frozen … cannot be foreseen. It we are going to accomplish anything in our time we must approach our problem in the knowledge that there is nothing rigid or immutable in human affairs. History is a story of growth, decay and change. If no provision, no allowance is made for change by peaceful means, it will come anyway-and with violence.
Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic

Historians give us the extraordinary events, and omit just what we want, the everyday life of each particular time and country.
Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist

History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians.
George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher

History is not the story of heroes entirely. It is often the story of cruelty and injustice and shortsightedness. There are monsters, there is evil, there is betrayal. That’s why people should read Shakespeare and Dickens as well as history—they will find the best, the worst, the height of noble attainment and the depths of depravity.
David McCullough (1933–2022) American Historian

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist

History is one of the most remarkable things in our lives. The mere fact it occurred makes it remarkable.
Unknown

Historian. A broad—gauge gossip.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist

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