Quotes about history
page 41

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston photo

“I believe that the Durbar, more than any event in modern history, showed to the Indian people the path which, under the guidance of Providence, they are treading, taught the Indian Empire its unity, and impressed the world with its moral as well as material force. It will not be forgotten. The sound of the trumpets has already died away; the captains and the kings have departed; but the effect produced by this overwhelmingly display of unity and patriotism is still alive and will not perish. Everywhere it is known that upon the throne of the East is seated a power that has made of the sentiments, the aspirations, and the interests of 300 millions of Asiatics a living thing, and the units in that great aggregation have learned that in their incorporation lies their strength. As a disinterested spectator of the Durbar remarked, Not until to-day did I realise that the destinies of the East still lie, as they always have done, in the hollow of India’s hand. I think, too, that the Durbar taught the lesson not only of power but of duty. There was not an officer of Government there present, there was not a Ruling Prince nor a thoughtful spectator, who must not at one moment or other have felt that participation in so great a conception carried with it responsibility as well as pride, and that he owed something in return for whatever of dignity or security or opportunity the Empire had given him.”

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British politician

Budget Speech (25 March 1903), quoted in Lord Curzon in India, Being A Selection from His Speeches as Viceroy & Governor-General of India 1898-1905 (London: Macmillan, 1906), pp. 308-309.

Jürgen Habermas photo
Matt Ridley photo
Koenraad Elst photo

“Negationism and history-distortion require a large-scale effort and a very strong grip on the media of information and education. As soon as the grip loosens, at least the most blatant of the negationist concoctions are bound to be exposed, and its propounders lose all credibility. In 1988, the schools in the Soviet Union decided to suspend the history exams because "the history books are full of lies anyway."”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

The great lies and distortions of Soviet historiography are now items in the gallery of ridicule.... Just like the Russians have thrown Soviet historiography into the dustbin, Indian negationism will also be thrown out in the near future.
1990s, Negationism in India, (1992)

Henry Fielding photo
Anna Schwartz photo
Marine Le Pen photo
Max Weber photo
Tariq Ali photo
Brian W. Aldiss photo
Chang Yu-hern photo

“History often repeats itself. If we can learn our lessons early, we can avoid accidents. The purpose of the investigation is not to blame someone for the neglect of duty or to hold someone responsible, but to figure out the real causes for the accidents and avoid making the same mistakes again.”

Chang Yu-hern (1954) Taiwanese politician

Chang Yu-hern (2010) cited in: " NCKU Prof. Yu-Hern Chang Appointed as Chairman of Aviation Safety Council http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/03/idUS84305+03-Jun-2010+BW20100603" in Reuters, 3 June 2010.

Nick Cave photo
Ray Harryhausen photo
Frederick Douglass photo

“For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship, and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom. First things are always interesting, and this is one of our first things. It is the first time that, in this form and manner, we have sought to do honor to an American great man, however deserving and illustrious. I commend the fact to notice; let it be told in every part of the republic; let men of all parties and opinions hear it; let those who despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that now and here, in the spirit of liberty, loyalty, and gratitude, let it be known everywhere, and by everybody who takes an interest in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of mankind, that, in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American House of Representatives, reflecting the general sentiment of the country; that in the presence of that august body, the American Senate, representing the highest intelligence and the calmest judgment of the country; in the presence of the Supreme Court and Chief-Justice of the United States, to whose decisions we all patriotically bow; in the presence and under the steady eye of the honored and trusted President of the United States, with the members of his wise and patriotic Cabinet, we, the colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of the first century in the life of this republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line, feature, and figure of which the men of this generation may read, and those of aftercoming generations may read, something of the exalted character and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr President of the United States.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1870s, Oratory in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876)

Isaac Asimov photo

“Societies create their own history and tend to wipe out lowly beginnings, either by forgetting them or inventing totally fictitious heroic rescues.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 17 “Gaia” section 5, p. 363

John Rogers Searle photo
Robert Smith (musician) photo
Paul Davies photo

“I cannot believe that our existence in this universe is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. Our involvement is too intimate.”

Paul Davies (1946) British physicist

Source: The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World (1992), Ch. 9: 'The Mystery at the End of the Universe', p. 232

Andrew Marr photo

“In history, the arrival of a small man in a big hat is rarely good news.”

Andrew Marr (1959) British journalist

Andrew Marr's History of the World, Episode VI, Revolution (28 October 2012)

Ernst Gombrich photo
John Calvin photo

“The worship of images is intimately connected with that of the saints. They were rejected by the primitive Christians; but St Irenæus, who lived in the second century, relates that there was a sect of heretics, the Carpocratians, who worshipped, in the manner of Pagans, different images representing Jesus Christ, St Paul, and others. The Gnostics had also images; but the church rejected their use in a positive manner, and a Christian writer of the third century, Minutius Felix, says that “the Pagans reproached the Christians for having neither temples nor simulachres;” and I could quote many other evidences that the primitive Christians entertained a great horror against every kind of images, considering them as the work of demons. It appears, however, that the use of pictures was creeping into the church already in the third century, because the council of Elvira in Spain, held in 305, especially forbids to have any picture in the Christian churches. These pictures were generally representations of some events, either of the New 5 In his Treatise given below. 11 or of the Old Testament, and their object was to instruct the common and illiterate people in sacred history, whilst others were emblems, representing some ideas connected with the doctrines [008] of Christianity. It was certainly a powerful means of producing an impression upon the senses and the imagination of the vulgar, who believe without reasoning, and admit without reflection; it was also the most easy way of converting rude and ignorant nations, because, looking constantly on the representations of some fact, people usually end by believing it. This iconographic teaching was, therefore, recommended by the rulers of the church, as being useful to the ignorant, who had only the understanding of eyes, and could not read writings.6 Such a practice was, however, fraught with the greatest danger, as experience has but too much proved. It was replacing intellect by sight.7 Instead of elevating man towards God, it was bringing down the Deity to the level of his finite intellect, and it could not but powerfully contribute to the rapid spread of a pagan anthropomorphism in the church.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Source: A Treatise of Relics (1543), p. 10-11

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo
Arthur Koestler photo

“We find in the history of ideas mutations which do not seem to correspond to any obvious need, and at first sight appear as mere playful whimsies — such as Apollonius' work on conic sections, or the non-Euclidean geometries, whose practical value became apparent only later.”

Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist

as quoted by Michael Grossman in the The First Nonlinear System of Differential and Integral Calculus (1979).
The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959)

Tommy Franks photo
Lewis H. Lapham photo
Adrienne Rich photo
Octave Mirbeau photo
Ravi Zacharias photo
Gertrude Stein photo

“It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Wars I Have Seen (1945)

Michelle Obama photo

“Every day, you have the power to choose our better history — by opening your hearts and minds, by speaking up for what you know is right, by sharing the lessons of Brown versus Board of Education, the lessons you learned right here in Topeka, wherever you go for the rest of your lives.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

Quoted on Yahoo News!, "First lady tells Kansas students to fight bias" (16 May 2014) http://news.yahoo.com/first-lady-tells-kansas-students-fight-bias-021747701.html
2010s

Steve Sailer photo

“One lesson of Irish history might be that it’s better to tolerate your annoying neighbors rather than bring in people from beyond the seas to help you win your petty domestic disputes.”

Steve Sailer (1958) American journalist and movie critic

Thinking of England http://takimag.com/article/thinking_of_england_steve_sailer/print#ixzz4A7pKSd3k, Taki's Magazine, March 30, 2016

Gunnar Myrdal photo
Karl Popper photo

“The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in "Israel in the Desert" (1819)
Misattributed

Edwin Boring photo
Maulana Karenga photo
Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Joseph Nye photo

“The cure to misunderstanding history is to read more, not less.”

Joseph Nye (1937) American political scientist

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 1, Is There an Enduring Logic of Conflict in World Politics?, p. 19.

“Progress is man’s indifference to the lessons of history.”

An Expensive Place to Die, Jonathan Cape (1967) Ch. 39

Thomas Browne photo

“To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.”

Source: Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658), Chapter V

Augusto Pinochet photo

“Don't forget that in the history of the world, there was a plebiscite, in which Christ and Barabbas were being judged, and the people chose Barabbas.”

Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) Former dictator of the republic of Chile

Speech (25 October 1988), commenting on his defeat in a plebiscite to return to democracy. Quoted in Pamela Constable et al. (1991) A Nation of Enemies
1980s

William O. Douglas photo
William Wilberforce photo
Shashi Tharoor photo

“Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land, emerging from an ancient civilization, shaped by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

The 125th Anniversary Jubilee Lecture, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, November 12 2005, "India: from Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond" Available Online http://www.shashitharoor.com/books/midnight/lecture.html
2000s

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Serious affairs and history are carefully laid snares for the uninformed.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

"Game III," p. 98
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Game”

Orson Scott Card photo
Noam Chomsky photo
George Galloway photo
James Robert Flynn photo
Francis Place photo
Bernard-Henri Lévy photo
Hastings Ismay photo

“On the Festival of Britain, "We are consciously and deliberately determined to make history."”

Hastings Ismay (1887–1965) Army officer

"Scope of 1951 Festival". The Times: p. 3a. 9 June 1949.

Max Tegmark photo
Melinda M. Snodgrass photo
Heather Brooke photo
Nayef Al-Rodhan photo
Rudolph Rummel photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Norodom Sihanouk photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“From history's examples we conclude,
And modern instances teach us the same:
Good follows Evil, Evil follows Good,
Shame ends in glory, glory ends in shame.
Thus it is evident that no man should
Put trust in victories or wealth or fame,
Nor yet despair if Fortune is adverse:
She turns her wheel for better, as for worse.”

Si vede per gli esempi di che piene
Sono l'antiche e le moderne istorie,
Che 'l ben va dietro al male, e 'l male al bene,
E fin son l'un de l'altro e biasmi e glorie;
E che fidarsi a l'uom non si conviene
In suo tesor, suo regno e sue vittorie,
Né disperarsi per Fortuna avversa,
Che sempre la sua ruota in giro versa.
Canto XLV, stanza 4 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Friedrich Kellner photo
Serzh Sargsyan photo

“Armenians, as a people that have survived the Genocide, have a moral duty towards mankind and history in the prevention of genocides. We have done and will continue to do our best to support the persistent implementation of the Genocide Convention. Genocide cannot concern only one people, because it is a crime against humanity.”

Serzh Sargsyan (1954) Armenian politician, 3rd President of Armenia

Speech by President Serzh Sargsyan in the Chatham House British Royal Institute of International Affairs http://www.president.am/events/news/eng/?search=Chatham+House&id=898 (February 10, 2010)

Philip Roth photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
Michael J. Behe photo

“Under my definition, a scientific theory is a proposed explanation which focuses or points to physical, observable data and logical inferences. There are many things throughout the history of science which we now think to be incorrect which nonetheless would fit that — which would fit that definition. Yes, astrology is in fact one.”

Michael J. Behe (1952) American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate

testimony in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, trial transcript: day 11 http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dover/day11pm.html#day11pm132 (18 October 2005).

Slavoj Žižek photo
Mark Satin photo
Zbigniew Herbert photo
Pearl S.  Buck photo
Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet photo
Randal Marlin photo
David Attenborough photo

“Half the things you've been taught in school are just convenient fictions. History is a puppet show for childish minds.”

John Twelve Hawks American writer

Fourth Realm Trilogy (2005-2009), The Traveler (2005)

Koenraad Elst photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan photo
Rajiv Gandhi photo

“Every person should take a lesson from history. We should understand that wherever there have been internal fights and conflicts in the country, the country has been weakened. Due to this, the danger from outside increases. The country has to pay a big price due to this type of weakness.”

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India

In his address to the party workers on 12 November 1984 to spoil the machinations of terrorist, when he was elected to the post of the President of the Congress party, quoted by Meena Agrawal in “Rajiv Gandhi” P.74
Quote

“Historically, "public administration" has grown in large part out of the wider field of inquiry, "political science." The history of American political science during the past fifty years is a story much too lengthy to be told here, but some important general characteristics and tendencies it has communicated to or shared with public administration must be noted.
The Secular Spirit Despite: the fact that "political science" in such forms as moral philosophy and political economy had been taught in America long before the Civil War, the present curriculum, practically in its entirety, is the product of the secular, practical, empirical, and "scientific" tendencies of the past sixty or seventy years. American students dismayed at the inadequacies of the ethical approach in the Gilded Age, stimulated by their pilgrimage to German universities, and led by such figures as J. W. Burgess, E. J. James, A. B. Hart, A. L. Lowell, and F. J. Goodnow have sought to recreate political science as a true science. To this end they set about observing and analyzing "actual government." At various times and according to circumstances, they have turned to public law, foreign institutions, rural, municipal, state, and federal institutions, political parties, public opinion and pressures, and to the administrative process, in the search for the "stuff" of government. They have borrowed both ideas and examples from the natural sciences and the other social disciplines. Frequently they have been inspired by a belief that a Science of Politics will emerge when enough facts of the proper kinds are accumulated and put in the proper juxtaposition, a Science that will enable man to "predict and control" his political life. So far did they advance from the old belief that the problem of good government is the problem of moral men that they arrived at the opposite position: that morality is irrelevant, that proper institutions and expert personnel are determining.”

Dwight Waldo (1913–2000) American political scientist

Source: The Administrative State, 1948, p. 22-23

Tom Wolfe photo
Henry Miller photo

“The history of the world is the history of a privileged few.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Sunday after the war (1944), pub. New Directions.

Al-Mahdi photo

“Al-Suyuti, History of The Caliphs, Translated by Major H. S. Jarrett, Calcutta (India), 1881.”

Al-Mahdi (744–785) the third Abbasid Caliph

Further Readings