Quotes About History

At the time of the Russian emancipation, about 20 percent of the Russian population lived in serfdom. In the United States at this time, about 10 percent of the population lived in slavery.

But the lie often repeated becomes history, and the snake-oil pitchman's forgery of yore becomes the inspirational gospel of a posterity that sees itself as worldly and wise.

A day of infamy. It will forever be remembered among my people as our lowest moment. Our darkest time.

Sometimes people have to do new things, things that have never been done before. Everything your foremothers did was new once.

Most importantly for me, historical accuracy also meant this could not be a story of only straight, white, nondisabled men. Crips, queers, women and other genders, and people of colour are an integral part of the history of Britain—we are embedded at every level of society, present during every change, and part of every problem and its solution. We are here now; we were there then. So we are in this story.

Unusual to find a caterer who knows Caesar's commentary." "You really know how to endear yourself to a girl.

The revolt always begins when the steward wants to be king. A lesson the Franks never seen to learn.

Modern history is the dialogue between two men: one who believes in God, another who believes he is a god.

When he is stripped of the Christian tunic and the classical toga, there is nothing left of the European but a pale-skinned barbarian.

To deny that a "human nature" exists is the ideological trick the optimist employs to defend himself against history.

Man forges his own history, imposing on nature the errors of his free will. If hatred and greed drag man down among bloody mazes, the struggle is joined between perverted freedoms and just freedoms.

The French Revolution has been the highest wave of the Gnostic tide.

Sólo las letras antiguas curan la sarna moderna.

Modern man no longer dares to preach that the individual is born as a blank slate. Too many mishaps have taught him that we are the oppressed heirs of our family, our race, our blood. Blood is not an innocent liquid, but the viscous paste of history.

That the French Revolution was essentially a religious phenomenon was only seen with clarity by Joseph de Maistre and Jules Michelet.

In history it is wise to hope for miracles and absurd to trust in plans. Intelligent optimism is never faith in progress, but hope in a miracle.

Either we learn from Greek tragedy how to read human history, or we never learn how to read it.

The reactionary is that fool who possesses the vanity to judge history, and the immorality to come to terms with it.

Humanity will one day solemnly recall the events that initiated the dismantlement of the industrial society.

Wenn ein Reaktionär von "unvermeidlicher Restauration" spricht, dürfen wir nicht vergessen, dass der Reaktionär in Jahrtausenden rechnet.

An American historian cannot write history without lamenting that providence did not consult him beforehand.

History is less the evolution of humanity than the unfolding of facets of human nature.

Alles was ein Tradition unterbricht zwingt zu neuem Anfang. Und jeder Anfang ist blutig.

Die Hinrichtung Ludwigs XVI. ist weniger der politischen Geschichte Frankreichs zuzuordnen als der religiösen Geschichte des Abendlandes. Die Königsmorde besiegelten einen neuen Bund im Blute frevlerischer Opferung.