Quotes About History

If we start close to home, we open ourselves out. I will try to show how, in making sense of things that happen, we also draw on histories of thought and activism that precede us. Throughout I thus reflect on how feminism itself can be understood as an affective inheritance; how our own struggles to make sense of realities that are difficult to grasp become part of a wider struggle, a struggle to be, to make sense of being.

Why are we so careless that we let our own histories die without even noticing?

My platitudes don't hold their interest and I can hardly blame them for that. My real stories are all out of date. So what if I can speak firsthand about the Spanish flu, the advent of the automobile, world wars, cold wars, guerrilla wars, and Sputnik — that's all ancient history now. But what else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That's the reality of getting old, and I guess that's really the crux of the matter. I'm not ready to be old yet.

I paused beneath the arched entrance, where the drawbridge had once been, imagining all the people who had passed in and out over the centuries, every one of them carrying a combination of desire, hope, jealousy, despair, grief, love, and every other human emotion; a combination that made each one as unique as a snowflake, yet linked all of them inextricably to every other human being from the dawn of time to the end of it.

Sometimes when you get older—and I'm not talking about you, I'm talking generally, because everyone ages differently—things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it they're a part of your history, and if someone challenges you on them and says they're not true—why, then you get offended.

For the rest of the night, all I could think about was how many heads had lain on those pillows before my own.

world wars, cold wars, guerrilla wars, and Sputnik

Do you think anyone in the history of this world ever set out to fight for the wrong side?

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it

Misogyny was born of fear of women.

The story of women in antiquity should be told now, not only because it is a legitimate aspect of social history, but because the past illuminates contemporary problems in relationships between men and women. ... It is most significant to note the consistency with which some attitudes toward women and the roles women play in Western society have endured through the centuries.

Red scares united Americans against not just the handful of violent anarchists, but against the hundreds of thousands of labor activists who were tarred with the same brush.

The initial phase of this revolt was the Farmers' Alliance movement, born on the Texas frontier.

Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.

The basic fact is that no, this isnt ideal. Very few things are. Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push,so to speak. -Heidi

There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past. I wasn't sure I had it in me to keep looking back.

And the rest is history,' I said. Nah.' He shook his head. 'The rest is now.

If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future.It's all linked together.

Despite our differences, we did have a history. No one understood where I was coming from the way he did.

Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak.

So I left him there alone to watch history repeat the same events retold again and again on his own.

This isn't ideal. Very few things are. Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak. You know?

Tu pasado siempre es tu pasado. Aun si lo olvidas, te recuerda.

There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past.