1,003 Quotes Regarding History


I think there was a revolution in poetry, associated chiefly with Eliot and Pound but maybe it is of the nature of revolutions or of the nature of history that their innovations should later come to look trivial or indistinguishable from technical tricks.
Howard Nemerov

Throughout this country's history there have of course been systematic efforts to create an official underclass.
Eric Liu

We've been a country that's been fortunate to be protected by two oceans, to not have serious attacks on our territory for most of our history. And we were unfortunately reminded in a very devastating way of our vulnerability.
Condoleezza Rice

In a country like France, so ancient, their history is full of outstanding people, so they carry a heavy weight on their back. Who could write in French after Proust or Flaubert?
Manuel Puig

World history is tragic.
Friedrich Durrenmatt

I can't change history, I don't want to change history. I can only change the future. I'm working on that.
Boris Becker

We are the only class in history that has been left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The main essentials of a successful prime minister are sleep and a sense of history.
Harold Wilson

The more the history of the World War and what led up to it is studied, the more clearly those tragic years become revealed as a vast collapse of civilization.
Arthur Henderson

Those nations have a very great responsibility at this juncture of the world's affairs, for by throwing their joint weight into the scales of history on the right side, they may tip the balance decisively in favour of peace.
Arthur Henderson

Whatever we do or fail to do will influence the course of history.
Arthur Henderson

Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice.
Leigh Hunt

Providence conceals itself in the details of human affairs, but becomes unveiled in the generalities of history.
Alphonse de Lamartine

We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?
John Guare

And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died.
Julien Benda

I'm so intrigued by women throughout history where the significance of what they were representing at that time is obscured by the fact a man saved them or they were prostitutes.
Zoe Saldana

We decry violence all the time in this country, but look at our history. We were born in a violent revolution, and we've been in wars ever since. We're not a pacific people.
James Lee Burke

Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war.
B. H. Liddell Hart

If you listen to Giuliani, it's like nobody did anything to improve the city except him. I'm not part of the history. Bloomberg's not part of the history. It's like, he did it. He's the only one. That's why he's a little crazy.
Ed Koch

The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie.
Joseph Brodsky