Quotes About History

The same strength which has extended our power beyond a continent has also interwoven our destiny with the destiny of many peoples and brought us into a vast web of history in which other wills, running in oblique or contrasting directions to our own, inevitably hinder or contradict what we most fervently desire. We cannot simply have our way, not even when we believe our way to have the "happiness of mankind" as its promise.

tragic elements in present history are not as significant as the ironic ones. Pure tragedy elicits tears of admiration and pity for the hero who is willing to brave death or incur guilt for the sake of some great good. Irony however prompts some laughter and a nod of comprehension beyond the laughter; for irony involves comic absurdities which cease to be altogether absurd when fully understood.

The consistent optimism of our liberal culture has prevented modern democratic societies both from gauging the perils of freedom accurately and from appreciating democracy fully as the only alternative to injustice and oppression. When this optimism is not qualified to accord with the real and complex facts of human nature and history, there is always a danger that sentimentality will give way to despair and that a too consistent optimism will alternate with a too consistent pessimism.

There are no simple congruities in life or history. The cult of happiness erroneously assumes them.

the mastery of historical destiny is a tortuous process in which powerful forces may be beguiled, deflected, and transmuted but never simply annulled or defied.

One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.

To the end of history, social orders will probably destroy themselves in an effort to prove they are indestructible.

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.

reading good books is like engaging in conversation with the most cultivated minds of past centuries who had composed them, or rather, taking part in a well-conducted dialogue in which such minds reveal to us only the best of their thoughts

La lecture de tous les bons livres est comme une conversation avec les plus honnêtes gens des siècles passés.

And even though we have read all the arguments of Plato and Aristotle, we shall never become philosophers if we are unable to make a sound judgement on matters which come up for discussion; in this case what we would seem to have learnt would not be science but history.

the perusal of all excellent books is, as it were, to interview with the noblest men of past ages, who have written them.

la lectura de todos los buenos libros es como una conversación con los mejores ingenios de los pasados siglos

Mais lorsqu'on emploie trop de temps à voyager, on devient enfin étranger en son pays; et lorsqu'on est trop curieux des choses qui se pratiquoient aux siècles passés, on demeure ordinairement fort ignorant de celles qui se pratiquent en celui-ci.

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, and which they revealed to us none but their best thoughts

Leer buenos libros es como conversar con las mejores mentes del pasado.

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with all the finest men of past centuries.

There is no culture without a tomb and no tomb without a culture; in the end the tomb is the first and only cultural symbol. The above-ground tomb does not have to be invented. It is the pile of stones in which the victim of the unanimous stoning is buried. It is the first pyramid.

For the first time in human history the divine and collective violence are separated from one another. The Bible rejects the gods created by sacralized violence.

The profane sciences of which the modern world is so proud are really and truly only the degenerate 'residues' of the ancient traditional sciences.

It is also said that Genghis Khan wanted to attack the kingdom of Prester John, but that the latter repulsed him by unleashing thunderbolts against his armies.

It is almost as if the Greeks, at a time when they were about to disappear from history, wished to avenge themselves for their own incomprehension by imposing on a whole section of mankind the limitations of their own mental horizons.

s'il est « difficile de déterminer les commencements du Soufisme dans l'Islam », c'est que, traditionnellement, il n'a et ne peut avoir d'autre « commencement » que celui de l'Islam lui-même, et c'est dans des questions de ce genre qu'il conviendrait tout particulièrement de se méfier des abus de la moderne « méthode historique ».