Quotes About History

I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads. People get the history they deserve.

I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.

France cannot be France without greatness.

In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

A virgin woman has saved France as a virgin man has saved all mankind. (Une pucelle a sauvé la France, - Comme Un puceau a sauvé tous les hommes.)

Dinausors were big ; likewise, their bones. (Dinosaures furent grands ; - De même, leurs ossements.)

Historians conquer the past, not the future. (Les historiens conquièrent Le passé, non l'avenir)

Hitler not from a woman is born, but from the men bitterness.(Hitler n'est pas né d'une femme, Mais de l'amertume des hommes)

Hitler not from a woman is born : he is the child of the men bittemess. (Hitler n'est pas né d'une femme, Mais de l'amertume des hommes)

Spartacus is dead, but he's still talking. (Spartacus est mort, Mais il parle encore)

The crusaders fought war, and they won leprosy . (Les croisés firent la guerre, et ils gagnèrent la lèpre)

We're all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. It's a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, it's true, but then so's everything.

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.

Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seeds of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.

Mr. Cruncher... always spoke of the year of our Lord as Anna Dominoes: apparently under the impression that the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a lady who had bestowed her name upon it.

The age of chivalry is past. Bores have succeeded to dragons.

He is of what is called the old school - a phrase generally meaning any school that seems never to have been young.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott

Anno Domini seventeen hundred and eighty. (Mr. Cruncher himself always spoke of the year of our Lord as Anna Dominoes: apparently under the impression that the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a lady who had bestowed her name upon it.)

But the man continuing to exclaim, "Down, Evremonde!" the face of Evremonde is for a moment turned towards him. Evremonde then sees the Spy, and looks attentively at him, and goes his way.