“When victory is gained by cunning and vicious means. By deceit and manipulation, such victories will never last. History is written by the victors. But history also proves, if the glory that is built with the denial of human values is only waiting for the time of its own destruction.”

—  Titon Rahmawan

Last update Nov. 30, 2023. History

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“It has been said, "History is written by the victors." I take this to mean we can make ourselves victorious by writing, and then rewriting our own stories. In a country and culture so dominated by media, by the manipulation of words and stories, telling the tales of people whose stories historically have not been told is a radical act and I believe an act that can change the world and help rewrite history.”

Jennifer Beals (1963) American actress and a former teen model

Speech at 4th Annual Power Up Premiere Gala, Los Angeles, California (7 November 2004) http://jennifer-beals.com/media/speeches/powerup.html.

“Victory over self will not lead us to glory. It is only a postponement of destruction. There is no lasting victory except for those who have faced and defeated death.”

Titon Rahmawan
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“History is written by the victors--and when there is no victors, it all winds up in the corporate shredders.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Walter Benjamin photo

“History is written by the victors.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)
Guillermo del Toro photo

“History is written by the victor.”

Guillermo del Toro book The Night Eternal

Source: The Night Eternal

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo

“Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Nobel lecture (1970)
Context: Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history. What is more, it is not simply crude power that triumphs abroad, but its exultant justification. The world is being inundated by the brazen conviction that power can do anything, justice nothing.

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“History is written by the victors … except on Wikipedia haha.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

Quotes https://www.wewishes.com/elon-musk-quotes/
Source: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1294921196564180994

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“If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

Source: The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation, p. 18

“The so-called lessons of history are for the most part the rationalizations of the victors. History is written by the survivors.”

Max Lerner (1902–1992) American journalist and educator

It Is Later Than You Think: The Need for a Militant Democracy http://books.google.com/books?id=szVGoBq-dkEC&q=%22actually+The+so-called+lessons+of+history+are+for+the+most+part+the+rationalizations+of+the+victors+history+is+written+by+the+survivors%22&pg=PA255#v=onepage (1939)

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“History is written by the victors, but it's victims who write the memoirs.”

Carol Tavris (1944) American psychologist

Source: Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

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