Quotes About History

C'est en cet instant de gloire que le raïs prononça l'arrêt de mort de l'Égypte cosmopolite et libérale.

celui de l'Iran. Churchill en personne s'est démené pour abattre le gouvernement du docteur Mossadegh

Esfahan, nesf-é jahan! is what the Persians of today say. 'Isfahan, half of the world!

Après 1949, l'année des trois coups d'État, la démocratie n'a plus jamais réussi à s'imposer en Syrie.

L'Histoire ne fonctionne pas ainsi. Jamais on ne revient en arrière, jamais on ne retrouve l'environnement matériel ou mental d'une époque antérieure. La marche du temps nous fait toujours pénétrer dans des zones nouvelles, mal explorées, peu balisées, et qui ne ressemblent qu'en apparence à celles qu'ont traversées les générations précédentes.

I had the chance to meet an extraordinary personality, one of those beings who cross History determined to leave their imprint on the generations to come.

Bien des instants emblématiques qui ont façonné notre époque, de la chute du mur de Berlin à la chute des tours jumelles de Manhattan, trouvent leur origine dans les événements de « cette année-l?…

Tout ce qui se passe ressemble forcément à quelque chose qui s'est déjà passé.

Un empire millénaire venait d'être aboli en notre présence, le monde musulman était en train de connaître un bouleversement majeur, qui allait avoir des conséquences sur toute l'étendue de la planète.

Ce que je regrette, c'est la disparition d'un certain état d'esprit qui a existé du temps des empires, et qui considérait comme normal et légitime que des peuples vivent au sein d'une même entité politique sans avoir forcément la même religion, la même langue, ni la même trajectoire historique.

If the Persians live in the past it is because the past is their homeland and the present is a foreign country where nothing belongs to them.

But what is a legend if not a story so great it has survived the retelling of countless generations?

My name is Attila.' ah-til-ha. 'That's an unusual name,' Jean said. 'to whom?' replied Attila cheerfully. 'Well . . . everyone,' said Jean. 'not to the Hungarians or the Turks,' said Attila. 'your parents named you after Attila the Hun?' Attila smiled. 'Some people,' he said, 'name their baby girls Victoria.

The Elements is arguably the most influential mathematical text in history.

Religious minorities (including Jews) will have to wear special insignia in Iraq

The white man is in love with the past, with dead things, and soon he will become one.

Calcutta is like a work of modern art that neither makes sense nor has utility, but exists for some esoteric aesthetic reason.

The Bengali was the Marwari of the early nineteenth century.

Anyway, if Calcutta today suffers in comparison, it's not really to other cities, but principally to itself and what it used to be. Anyone who has an idea of what Calcutta once was will find that vanished Calcutta the single most insurmountable obstacle to understanding, or sympathising with, the city today.

History was what had happened; class was something you read about in a book.

Calcutta has still not recovered from history: people mourn the past, and abhor it deeply.

Yoga was originated in India around 5500 BCE. Vedas were written during 1500 to 1200 BCE and the Patanjali's yoga sutra was written around 500 BCE.

To use the past to justify the present is bad enough—but it's just as bad to use the present to justify the past.

The truth is, sir, that men do what their power permits them to do. We are no different from the Pharaohs or the Mongols: the difference is only that when we kill people we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause. It is this pretence of virtue, I promise you, that will never be forgiven by history.