History quotes
1.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside history — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong."
"Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes."
"We learn from history that man can never learn anything from history."
"In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject which has recently agitated the nation..., I fervently hope that the question is at rest and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions."
"To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it."
"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath."
"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty."
"History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes."
"Presume not that I am the thing I was."
"K is for "Kenghis Khan"; He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere."
"I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag."
"After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it."
"Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out."
"I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."
"The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves."
"Historical experience is written in blood and iron."
"The thing I am most aware of is my limits. And this is natural; for I never, or almost never, occupy the middle of my cage; my whole being surges toward the bars."
"The consciousness of the past weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living."
"A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us."
"The economic interpretation of history does not necessarily mean that all events are determined solely by economic forces. It simply means that economic facts are the ever recurring decisive forces, the chief points in the process of history."
