“Things just happen, one after another. They don't care who knows. But… ah, history is different. History has to be observed. Otherwise it's not history. It's just… well, things happening one after another.”

—  Terry Pratchett

Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Things just happen, one after another. They don't care who knows. But… ah, history is different. History has to be obse…" by Terry Pratchett?
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett 796
English author 1948–2015

Related quotes

Arnold J. Toynbee photo

“… the dogma that History is just "one damned thing after another…."”

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British historian, author of A Study of History

"Law and Freedom in History," <i>A Study of History</i>, Vol. 2 (1957). The embedded quotation is attributable to Elbert Hubbard.

Elbert Hubbard photo

“Life is just one damn thing after another.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Attributed in Items of Interest, Vol. 33 (1911), p. 8

Stephen Chbosky photo

“After a few minutes, it was time for me to leave. I don't know who decides these things. It just happens.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“History is never surprising—after it happens.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Logic of Empire

Logic of Empire (p. 333)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Sarah Vowell photo

“Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.”

Sarah Vowell book Assassination Vacation

Source: Assassination Vacation (2005), p. 208

Thomas M. Disch photo

“All the things that happen and seem so important at the time, and yet you forget them, one after another.”

Thomas M. Disch (1940–2008) Novelist, short story writer, poet

Emancipation: A Romance of the Times to Come (1971)

“Life is a process--just one thing after another. When you lose it, just start again.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

Julian Barnes photo

“History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

Jacques Derrida photo

“How can one be late to the end of history? A question for today. It is serious because it obliges one to reflect again, as we have been doing since Hegel, on what happens and deserves the name of event, after history; it obliges one to wonder if the end of history is but the end of a certain concept of history.”

Jacques Derrida book Specters of Marx

Injunctions of Marx
Specters of Marx (1993)

Ian McDonald photo

“Legends should stay legends; otherwise they just become history, when the natural course of things is the other way around, from history to legend.”

Ian McDonald book The Dervish House

Source: The Dervish House (2010), Ch. 3, §5 (p. 109)

Related topics