Quotes About History

During [Louis XIV]'s reign, France became the largest and most important nation in Europe.

Louis XIV had sent hundred of soldiers--all men--to New France. These soldiers wanted to start families... But there were six men for every woman... [Louis XIV] announced that he would pay young Frenchwomen large amounts of money if they would go and live in the colonies. Many young women accepted the King's offer...

The days of kings and lords first began to lose their brightness when philosophers and scientists realized that the ancient Greeks, who had long been held up as the wisest men in the world, were sometimes wrong.

began to establish their own kingdoms, all over the land that once

there were three men for every woman in Australia! Australia needed women. A committee in London was formed to send young women to Australia for only five pounds.

Pippin ordered Childeric III tonsured and sent to a monastery, where he died five years later, the last of the Merovingians.

Today, most people "go to work." But back at the beginning of the nineteenth century, "going to work" was a brand new idea. Families had always worked together in their homes.

Anthropologists can speculate about human behavior; archaeologists, about patterns of settlement; philosophers and theologians, about the motivations of "humanity" as an undifferentiated mass. But the historian's task is different: to look for particular human lives that give flesh and spirit to abstract assertions about human behavior.

I did not understand, taking those pictures, that history must be collected while the subject exists. If not, what goes unrecorded can fill an ocean.

Essentially I am a history geek trapped somewhere between the creative arts and academic scholarship. The natural result of this is to become an author of historical fiction.

Two of the most productive writers in history, Voltaire and Balzac, were also among the greatest coffee addicts in history. So far, caffeine hasn't made me nearly that productive, but I can hope.

Fiction, also--if done well--can perhaps allow the reader a greater feeling of recognition with people of the past. If we read a novel about people trying to control the Revolution, we're reading about them as people who have desires, ambitions, and neuroses just like ours, and we can relate to them, rather than seeing them just as stiff portraits with funny-looking hair--or as the one-dimensional monsters or saints that many pop histories have made them.

There are many people who do not know what some of the colored women did during the war. There were hundreds of them who assisted the Union soldiers by hiding them and helping them to escape.

Forget about writing to Penthouse. This one was going to be a story for their grandkids.

Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars, the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them.

His dad said even the cavemen had geniuses among them. Somebody had thought up the wheel.

People had short memories. They needed to navigate the rubble, peel off the grubby ration coupons, and witness the Hunger Games to keep the war fresh in their minds. Forgetting could lead to complacency, and then they'd all be back at square one.

Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them.

Nerrissa? You believe her? Well, you at least have to credit her with a certain instability! Remember when she told you that I was going to take over the Fount with and army of Lobsters?" said Ripred. "You did try to take over the Fount with an army of Lobsters," said Vikus. "Yes, yes, but it was years before she was born. My point is, she flip-flops in and out of time like a fish in shallow waters," answered Ripred.

If history teaches you anything, it's how to make the unwilling comply.

He tells the hiustory of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once North America.

Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them. But

No podéis robarme el pasado. No podéis robarme mi historia.

Because whatever happened in the past is in the past. And no one in this arena was a victor by chance." He