Quotes About History

For he to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives. To realise the nineteenth century, one must realise every century that has preceded it and that has contributed to its making. To know anything about oneself one must know all about others.

As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

The ages live in history through their anachronisms.

I suppose because we have no ruins and no curiosities," said Virginia satirically.

The curves of your lips rewrite history

As he looked back upon man moving through History, he was haunted by a feeling of loss. So much had been surrendered! and to such little purpose!...Hedonism... was to teach man to concentrate himself upon the moments of a life that is but itself a moment.

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. In art, as in politics, there is but one origin for all revolutions, a desire on the part of man for a nobler form of life, for a freer method and opportunity of expression

The fact is that we look back on the ages entirely through the medium of Art, and Art, very fortunately, has never once told us the truth.

The youth of America is their oldest tradition.

The history of women is the history of the worst form of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.

If the caveman had known how to laugh, history would have been different.

Olvidar un hecho, es modificar el pasado.

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, history would have been different.

nasza przysz?o?? b?dzie taka sama jak przesz?o?? i grzech, pope?niony kiedy? raz, ze wstr?tem, b?dziemy powtarza? po wielokro? - ju? z przyjemno?ci?.

Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it.

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

It is a vulgar error to suppose that America was ever discovered. It was merely detected.

The Icelanders are the most intelligent race on earth, because they discovered America and never told anyone.

What is the difference between scandal and gossip? Oh! gossip is charming! History is merely gossip, but scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

La humanidad se toma a sí misma demasiado en serio. Es el pecado original del mundo. Si el hombre de las cavernas hubiera sabido reír, la historia habría sido diferente.

We look to the archaeologist for the materials, to the artist for the method.

Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons. It always means that they have a history.

The one charm of the past is that it is in the past.

The one charm of the past is that it is the past. But women never know when the curtain has fallen. They always want a sixth act, and as soon as the interest of the play is entirely over, they propose to continue it. If