Quotes About History

The sound of sporadic gunfire echoing through the narrow streets of Dublin

All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. ... It is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That is not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or undone.

There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum. When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything.

There are many manipulators highly skilled in telling "big" lies and thus in making those lies seem true. For example, if one studies the history of the CIA, one can document any number of unethical deeds that have been covered up by lies (see any volume of Covert Action Quarterly for documentation of the misdeeds and dirty tricks of the CIA in every region of the world).14 Virtually all of these unethical acts were officially denied at the time of their commission. Dirty

The lessons of history are always forgotten unless permanent institutions are created to prevent a repetition.

I believe the transformative moment that gave rise to the genus Homo, one of the great transitions in the history of life, stemmed from the control of fire and the advent of cooked meals.

Food historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto proposed that cooking created mealtimes and thereby organized people into a community. For culinary historian Michael Symons, cooking promoted cooperation through sharing, because the cook always distributes food. Cooking, he wrote, is "the starting-place of trades.

History is far more important than evolutionary theorizing as a reminder about human potential, because the historical evidence of change is so much more vivid.

The problem in both human and ape history is that political power is built on physical power - and physical power is ultimately the power of violence or its threat.

We should accept the likelihood that male violence and male dominance over women have long been a part of our history. But with an evolutionary perspective we can firmly reject the pessimists who say it has to stay that way. Male demonism is not inevitable.

Better than honor and glory, and History's iron pen, Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.

pendulum is not a new invention.

Duke of Athens, who made himself the dictator of Florence until he was overthrown in 1343 by a mob which killed and ate one of the Duke's lieutenants in the Piazza della Signoria.

At least on paper, Congress had dramatically enlarged federal power and black rights. In December 1866 only about 0.5 percent of black adult males could vote. In December 1867 the figure rose to 80.5 percent, with the entire increase coming in the old Confederacy.

In the Northeast there was $77 in circulation per inhabitant. As late as 1880, the South had a quarter of the country's population but only 10 percent of its currency.

Any good history begins in strangeness. The past should not be comfortable. The past should not a familar echo of the present, for if it is familar why revist it? The past should be so strange that you wonder how you and people you know and love could come from such a time.

History is the enemy of memory.

The numbers are unclear, but contemporaries estimated abortions at one to every five or six live births in the 1850s. A Michigan Board of Health estimate in the 1880s claimed that one-third of all pregnancies ended in an abortion.

As the mayor of Chicago told a labor rally on May Day in 1867, eight hours of work had become more exhausting than ten or twelve hours had been earlier.

In 1870 in response to the Fifteenth Amendment, the citizens of Michigan made a simple but far-reaching alteration to their 1850 constitution. They struck out the word "white.

Abbot Miron had sat sewing a patch on his trousers as we talked. He raised his intense luminous eyes to Gaston and said, "Years ago I had a postcard from my brother in New York, who had been to the top of the Empire State Building. He didn't investigate the foundations first, Pastor Gaston. The fact that it had been there forty years is proof that the foundations are good. The same with the Church, which has rested two thousand years on the truth.

Look, I can explain everything" was the most commonly used line of dialogue in the history of American movies

Historically inaccurate.' Adrian gestured at me with his other hand, the one not on my shoulder. "Who the hell looks at you and says 'historically inaccurate'?

When you say 'old friend,' are we talking, like...since the Ice Age?" "No. Of course not." "Oh." "It's only been about four hundred years." "Ah. Yes. Only four hundred." A wry expression spread over his face. "Being with you is a continual experiment in perspective. Among other things.