Historical quotes

Historical

1.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

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Historical quotes (page 2 of 57)

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Baruch Spinoza Philosopher, Rationalist
Historical

"Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them."

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Martin Buber Philosopher
Historical

"The historical religions have the tendency to become ends in themselves, and, as it were, to put themselves in God's place, and, in fact, there is nothing that is so apt to obscure God's face as a religion."

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Mary McCarthy Author
Historical

"The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around."

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Donald James Author
Historical

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves."

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Soren Kierkegaard Philosopher, Theologian
Historical

"It is easy to see, though it scarcely needs to be pointed out, since it is involved in the fact that Reason is set aside, that faith is not a form of knowledge; for all knowledge is either a knowledge of the eternal, excluding the temporal and historical as indifferent, or it is pure historical knowledge. No knowledge can have for its object the absurdity that the eternal is the historical."

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Marie Curie Physicist, Chemist
Historical

"After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it."

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Immanuel Wallerstein Sociologist
Historical

"Communism is Utopia, that is nowhere. It is the avatar of all our religious eschatologies: the coming of the Messiah, the second coming of Christ, nirvana. It is not a historical prospect, but a current mythology. Socialism, by contrast, is a realizable historical system which may one day be instituted in the world."

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Gore Vidal Writer, Essayist, Playwright
Historical

"Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."

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Martin Luther Theologian
Historical

"Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind--that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me."

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