Quotes About History

I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance ... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance ... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.

There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before.

Until now in world's history, whenever we've had a dark age, its been temporary and local. And other parts of the world have been doing fine. And eventually, they help you get out of the dark age. We are now facing a possible dark age which is going to be world-wide and permanent! That's not fun. That's a different thing. But once we have established many worlds, we can do whatever we want as long as we do it one world at a time.

A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is--or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be.

The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.

No matter how carefully records are kept and filed and computerized, they grow fuzzy with time. Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate--like dust. The longer the time lapse, the dustier the history--until it degenerates into fables.

[John] Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth. They don't want the truth; they want their traditions.

The events in this story take place during the devastating Ukrainian famine of 1921–23, when more than a million people died of starvation and disease.

People would ask him what a Gobelin was, why the Jacobins had betrayed Robespierre, how rayon was manufactured, what made a section caesarean. Grandfather had all the answers.

He was murdered in Stalin's purges in 1940, at the age of 45.

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

Every human character appears only once in the history of human beings. And so does every event of love.

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.

Centuries have not worm-eaten the solidity of this ancient furniture of the mind.

It frustrates and fascinates me that we'll never know for sure, that despite the best efforts of historians and scientists and poets, there are some things we'll just never know. What the first song sounded like. How it felt to see the first photograph. Who kissed the first kiss, and if it was any good.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatever.

Wenn ich weiter sehen konnte, so deshalb, weil ich auf den Schultern von Riesen stand.

Write what should not be forgotten.

All we have are our stories," said Edward.

Oh, she is coming, the dancer of the future… more glorious than any woman who has yet been: more beautiful than the Egyptian, than the early Italian, than all women of past centuries—the highest intelligence in the freest body!