Quotes About History

To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.

If we could read the past histories of all our enemies we would disregard all hostility for them.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

A form of government that is not the result of a long sequence of shared experiences, efforts, and endeavors can never take root.

Qu'est ce que l'histoire, sinon une fable sur laquelle tout le monde est d'accord.

Able was I ere I saw Elba

Quel roman pourtant que ma vie!

Posterity will talk of Washington as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of revolution.

Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future.

Caste system is the most brilliantly administered scam in history.

By growing a beard, a man turns his face into an echo of his crotch; and the capacity to grow a beard very likely predates the use of cosmetics by a few hundred thousand years.

My daughter's eggs are silver points of potential energy, the light at the beginning of the tunnel, a near-life experience. Boys don't make sperm—their proud "seed"—until they reach puberty. But my daughter's sex cells, our seed, are already settled upon prenatally, the chromosomes sorted, the potsherds of her parents' histories packed into their little phospholipid baggies.

We have lived! Our moments are important. This is what it is to be a writer: to be the carrier of details that make up history.

For thousands of years

Well, right now, I'm very fascinated with 1920s Berlin. I mean, probably the more interesting thing would be to go to the beginning of civilization or precivilization - like polytheistic times. It would be interesting to see what came before modern religion and culture - what circumstances created the environment or the need for it.

But why? Why do you care about our class's history?" "I just do. Besides, I need something to put on my art-school applications besides 'Locks self in room and draws all day.' Even art schools won't take a psychopath.

Throughout history, big changes always start with a girl meeting a boy." "No they don't," Jane said. "They start with somebody being assassinated.

Of course, we're made up of what we've forgotten too, what we've tried to bury or suppress.

He is dark as history, origin of the word native: the weight of blood

In my dream, the ghost of history lies down beside me, rolls over, pins me beneath a heavy arm.

The servant, still a child, cranes his neck, turns his face up toward all of them. He is dark as history, origin of the word native: the weight of blood, a pale mistress on his back, heavier every year.

Now the house is a museum of everything she can't let go

When I think of this now, I see how the past holds us captive, its beautiful ruin etched on the mind's eye

Before the war, they were happy, he said, quoting our textbook. (This was senior-year history class.) The slaves were clothed, fed, and better off under a master's care. I watched the words blur on the page. No one raised a hand, disagreed. Not even me.