“The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes.”

—  Celia Green

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes." by Celia Green?
Celia Green photo
Celia Green 50
British philosopher 1935

Related quotes

Miss Foozie photo

“My first time was all about who is the top and who is the bottom. That took five minutes.”

Miss Foozie (1960) drag queen

[Miss Foozie, Jason A. Heidemann, 2009, October 15-21,, Virgin territory, Time Out Chicago http://chicago.timeout.com/, 242, Gay & Lesbian http://chicago.timeout.com/chicago/section/gay-lesbian, Time Out Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1552-2202, 56360378, http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/gay/79441/queer-chicagoans-first-times, 2010-03-30, TimeOut]
Queer Chicagoans’ first times, Miss Foozie, Jason A. Heidemann, [http://chicago.timeout.com// Chicago Events & Things to Do http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/gay/79441/queer-chicagoans-first-times,, Time Out, 2009-10-15, 2010-03-30]

Randy Pausch photo

“Avoiding Procrastination: Doing things at the last minute is much more expensive than just before the last minute. Deadlines are really important: establish them yourself!”

Randy Pausch (1960–2008) American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design

Time Management (2007)

Carl Sagan photo

“We humans appear on the cosmic calendar so recently that our recorded history occupies only the last few seconds of the last minute of December 31st.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

57 min 0 sec
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean [Episode 1]

Albert Einstein photo

“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

There is no indication that Einstein said this. According to Quote Investigator, the earliest publication of a quote similar was in a collection of articles about manufacturing in 1966, when an employee of the Stainless Processing Company wrote a piece titled "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills." The article attributed the quote to an unnamed professor at Yale, by saying, "If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is." (See, 1966, The Manufacturing Man and His Job by Robert E. Finley and Henry R. Ziobro, "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills" by William H. Markle (Vice President, Stainless Processing Company, Chicago, Illinois), Start Page 15, Quote Page 18, Published by American Management Association, Inc., New York. Verified on paper). https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/22/solve/
Disputed
Variant: If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

Etty Hillesum photo
Warren Buffett photo

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

As quoted in Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management (2005) by Dan Robert Anderson, p. 138

Éamon de Valera photo

“All history is man's efforts to realise ideals.”

Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) 3rd President of Ireland

(5 February 1929).
I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

Theodore Roosevelt photo

Related topics