Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794–1872) Swiss historian
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.
Vol 2, Ch. 25 "Has History any Meaning?" Variant: There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.
The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)
Context: There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. But this, I hold, is an offence against every decent conception of mankind. It is hardly better than to treat the history of embezzlement or of robbery or of poisoning as the history of mankind. For the history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder (including it is true, some of the attempts to suppress them). This history is taught in schools, and some of the greatest criminals are extolled as heroes.
Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794–1872) Swiss historian
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)
Source: (1940), XVIII
Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine
Speech at the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1994)
Adam Ferguson book An Essay on the History of Civil Society
PART II, SECTION I.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)
Simon Conway Morris (1951) British palaeontologist
Source: The Crucible of Creation (1998), p. 205.
Raymond Geuss book Philosophy and Real Politics
Source: Philosophy and Real Politics (2008), p. 38.
P. J. O'Rourke book Parliament of Whores
Parliament of Whores (1991)
Context: Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadows about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.”
Franz Kafka book The Blue Octavo Notebooks
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)