Quotes About History

Aujourd'hui, on cherche partout à répandre le savoir; qui sait si, dans quelques siècles, il n'y aura pas des universités pour rétablir l'ancienne ignorance?

Wouldn't things look much better for the human race if we no longer had history, at least no political history? The human being then would act more in accordance with the energies he possesses at any given time; for as things stand today, the example that now and then makes one person better makes a thousand others worse.

One of our forefathers must have read a forbidden book.

Darüber, daß sie nichts zum zweitenmal erfinden wollen, lernen sie alles so ansehen, wie es ihre Vorfahren angesehen haben. Der zweite Fehler ist aber gewiß schlimmer, als der erste.

We learn from history that we do not learn from history.

History, in [Nietzsches] view, belongs to him who is fighting a great fight, and who needs examples, teachers and comforters, but cannot find them among his contemporaries. Without history the mountain chain of great mens great moments, which runs through millennia, could not stand clearly and vividly before me.

America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World's History shall reveal itself.

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.

What experience and history teach is this—that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.

The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.

The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.

The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.

What experience and history teach is this - that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.

Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.

America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World's History shall reveal itself.

World history is a court of judgment

History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea is Space.

History is not the soil in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are the blank pages of history.

Nothing is improbable until it moves into past tense.

there's so goddamn much history, it just can't help repeating itself.

I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed.

My father was a lawyer and to my best knowledge nobody in my family before had interest in science.