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10 Inspiring Quotes from History

Sometimes all it takes to turn your day around is an encouraging word. Some of the most inspiring quotes and sayings come from people who know what it’s like to keep working toward a goal even after failing.

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Walt Disney pursued his dreams during his lifetime and created an entertainment empire. His iconic character Mickey Mouse anchors the theme parks and cartoons that still bear his name.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank spent nearly two years in hiding with her family during World War II where she kept a diary chronicling what happened in the Secret Annex. Her entries offer great quotes and sayings that reveal her rich inner life and show that she never lost her faith in people even in one of modern history’s darkest moments.

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, defined his legacy by fighting political corruption and establishing national parks. He didn’t let his opponents’ power defeat him because he believed his goals would make the country a better place to live.

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh painted images with bold colors and textures that contrasted with the dark moods he felt during bouts with mental illness. He didn’t let the strong emotions prevent him from creating great works of art, living his belief that people should create even when they don’t feel like doing anything.

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

Babe Ruth remains one of the best known baseball players of all time. He earned a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame during its inaugural year, in part, because he didn’t let disappointment and mistakes hold him back from playing the game.

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Mark Twain must have believed he was born to offer pithy quips about life. He was a great observer of people and how they interact, and he incorporated these observations in his short stories, novels and essays.

“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”

Vince Lombardi was one of the most successful coaches in football history, and much of his success was the result of his ability to motivate his players. The encouraging words he used with them apply on the football field and in life. He knew that stirring the desire to achieve a goal brings great results.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific American inventors, filed almost 2,000 patents for different inventions. Despite his success, Edison spoke frequently of his failures. He used the lessons he learned from his mistakes to produce even better products.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.”

Helen Keller could not see or hear the world around her, but she didn’t let her disability keep her from writing and lecturing around the United States. She knew first hand the value of intangible qualities and lived a long, rich life surrounded by people she loved.

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”

Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius offers many inspiring quotes and sayings. He believed that loving others while practicing self-control was the key to a successful life. His teachings on social, political and educational topics left an imprint on world beliefs, something that could not have happened if he decided to stop sharing ideas with his followers.

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5 Funny Quotes from History

When we have a President who says things like “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall” as his answer to immigration, it’s no wonder we’re keen to read other funny stuff said by equally powerful people over the years. Some of the following are just as surprising as the former, while most you’ll find powerful and moving and funny all at the same time.

Ex-Presidents

Was Jimmy Carter known as a funny President? He couldn’t have been because his tenure at the top occurred during a time in which inflation and recession were rife, but after he left office he must have relaxed a little because he said “My esteem in this country must have gone up substantially. It is very nice now that when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” Bill Clinton was just as witty once he’d left office. “Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”

Elvis the Electrician

Elvis was loved and revered throughout his career. Worshipped by women and idolized by men but he wasn’t a comedian. He was a funny guy though from time to time, like when he was asked about his past and he said: “I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.” Although he was never a fully trained electrician, Elvis attended electrical apprenticeship school during the evenings.

Lessons from History

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history” is so true and perhaps only funny when you’re reflecting on a lesson you should have learned from the past. The man who said those words, George Bernard Shaw, was a noted playwright and critic so he knew something about being witty and wise. While it’s not a funny quote, another thing he said is worth repeating here: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” How true is that?

Gandhi wasn’t a funny guy but he made his point eloquently through humor when he was asked: “What do you think of western civilization” and he responded: “I think it would be a good idea.” He was full of great wisdom when he said things like “In a gentle way, you can shake the world”. Can you believe that Gandhi initially had a crippling fear of public speaking but he overcame it to spread his message around the world?

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” really does explain the focused nature of Henry Ford who knew his own mind and didn’t need anyone else’s assistance. Like so many of the other famous people quoted here, when Ford said “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time” he was making a point through gentle humor as that has a way of landing with people.

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Writing History Quotes

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History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

The art of writing history is the art of emphasizing the significant facts at the expense of the insignificant. And it is the same in every field of knowledge. Knowledge is power only if a man knows what facts not to bother about.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

History is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence. In the writing of history, a story without an argument fades into antiquarianism; an argument without a story risks pedantry. Writing history requires empathy, inquiry, and debate. It requires forswearing condescension, cant, and nostalgia. The past isn’t quaint. Much of it, in fact, is bleak.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

Half of writing history is hiding the truth.

Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

Today’s events are tomorrow’s history, yet events seen by the naked eye lack the depth and breadth of human struggles, triumphs and suffering. Writing history is writing the soul of the past… so that the present generation may learn from past mistakes, be inspired by their ancestor’s sacrifices, and take responsibility for the future.

History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten.

History is not truth versus falsehoods, but a mixture of both, a mélange of tendencies, reactions, dreams, errors, and power plays. What's important is what we make of it; its moral use. By writing history, we can widen readers' thinking and deepen their sympathies in every direction. Perhaps history should show us not how to control the world, but how to enlarge, deepen, and discipline ourselves.

The aim of art is almost divine: to bring to life again if it is writing history, to create if it is writing poetry.

You have to get inside the people you are writing about. You have to go below the surface. And that's to a very large degree what all writers are doing - they're trying to get below the surface. Whether it's in fiction or poetry or writing history and biography. Some people make that possible because they write wonderful letters and diaries. And you have to sort of go where the material is.

Oh, Val," said Father. "All you have to do is live your life, and everyone around you will be happier." "No greatness, then." "Val," said Mother, "goodness trumps greatness any day." "Not in the history books," said Valentine. "Then the wrong people are writing history, aren't they?" said Father.

Movies are like writing history with lightning.

It is like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.

Some may say [journal keeping] is a great deal of trouble. But we should not call anything trouble which brings to pass good. I consider that portion of my life which has been spent in keeping journals and writing history to have been very profitably spent. - "If there was no other motive in view [except] to have the privilege of reading over our journals and for our children to read, it would pay for the time spent in writing it.

People were, in good faith perhaps, writing history books about the Indian working class, Indian peasantry, et cetera, and at no point did Communists make an entry, not even to be criticized. They were essentially being whitewashed from history.

I feel like I'm too busy writing history to read it.

I had a long writing history behind me before I got into anything in film. It comprehended science fiction, it comprehended historical, it comprehended, you know, just about everything that you can think of.

I can fairly be called an amateur because I do what I do, in the original sense of the word - for love, because I love it. On the other hand, I think that those of us who make our living writing history can also be called true professionals.

I could not do what I do without the kindness, consideration, resourcefulness and work of librarians, particularly in public libraries... What started me writing history happened because of some curiosity that I had about some photographs I'd seen in the Library of Congress.

During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.

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  Start of Quotes About Historiography the writing of history

Quotes on history

TOK Home > Areas of knowledge > History > Quotes on history

These quotes will kick-start your exploration of history, and help you reflect on your own understanding of this area of knowledge.

Which quotes do you find the most and least insightful? Do the quotes challenge or support your understanding of history? What do the quotes reveal about the way history interlinks with the TOK themes, and the other areas of knowledge?

Quotes on the nature and scope of history

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 1 ( What is history, and why do we study it? ), the first unit of our BQ approach to TOK
• They also link to the nature and scope of the arts, part of the IB’s knowledge framework for exploring TOK
• Use the link to each thinker as a starting point to find out more about their ideas

History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him. Hilary Mantel

History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided. Konrad Adenauer People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James Baldwin History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. Ambrose Bierce History is more or less bunk. Henry Ford History never looks like history when you are living through it. John W. Gardner

Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it. Simone Weil

History is Philosophy teaching by example. Thucydides

History should be written as philosophy. Voltaire

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us. Johan Huizinga

History is the only true teacher, the revolution the best school for the proletariat. Rosa Luxemburg

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. Aldous Huxley

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology. W. H. Auden

History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be. John Henrik Clarke

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood? Carl Jung

Quotes on the relationship between history and values

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 2 ( How does our knowledge about the world inform our values? ), the second unit of our BQ approach to TOK
• They also link to the arts and ethics, part of the IB’s knowledge framework for exploring TOK

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Edward Gibbon

World history is a court of judgment. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort. Mason Cooley

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are. David McCullough

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Quotes on the communication of ideas in history

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 3 ( How is our understanding influenced by the way knowledge is communicated? ), the third unit of our BQ approach to TOK
• They also link to methods, tools, and practices of the arts, part of the IB’s knowledge framework for exploring TOK

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it. Theodor Adorno

In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better. Edward de Bono

Language is an archaeological vehicle… the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history. Russell Hoban

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down. A. Whitney Brown

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. Napoleon Bonaparte

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. Alexis de Tocqueville

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. Rudyard Kipling

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull. Anatole France

History, a distillation of rumour. Thomas Carlyle

Quotes on history, perspectives, and context

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 4 ( How do our perspectives and biases shape our knowledge? ), the fourth unit of our BQ approach to TOK
• They also link to perspectives & context related to the arts, part of the IB’s knowledge framework for exploring TOK

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. Winston Churchill  

History is written by the victors. Winston Churchill  

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. Mark Twain  

History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice. Will Durant  

God cannot alter the past, though historians can. Samuel Butler  

History is a vision of God’s creation on the move. Arnold J. Toynbee  

The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened. Peter Berger

Quotes on the creation of new ideas in history

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 5 ( How is new knowledge about the world created? ), the third unit of our BQ approach to TOK

We are not makers of history. We are made by history. Martin Luther King, Jr.

History is a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells

The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness. Jon Meacham

History takes time. History makes memory. Gertrude Stein

History develops, art stands still. E. M. Forster

Thanks to television, for the first time the young are seeing history made before it is censored by their elders. Margaret Mead

You have to look at history as an evolution of society. Jean Chretien

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly. Arthur Schopenhauer

The artist’s job is to be a witness to his time in history. Robert Rauschenberg

Quotes on becoming a discerning knower about history

• These quotes on history relate to Big Question 6 ( How do we become discerning knowers? ), the final unit of our BQ approach to TOK

All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual. Honore de Balzac

If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside. James Buchan

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning. Hermann Hesse

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers. Carlos Fuentes

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. Henry James

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist. H. L. Mencken

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. Plato

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. Aristotle

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The exploring TOK padlets (which we update every month) enable you to dive deeper into TOK via media sources, unpacking suggestions, guidance on the key concepts, and other support. Check out this sample padlet (for history) – join us to gain access to the rest!

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Famous History Quotes

Discover Your Roots With These Famous History Quotes

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We marvel at the ancient architectural wonders that attract tourists the world over. But the essence lies in the history of the foundation. History's frozen music is like a mute sentinel who helps cultures survive. Victories and failures, traditions and heritage, make history ever changing. Yet history remains the same.

Famous Quotes About History

Read these famous history quotes and get drawn into the realms of the past.

Voltaire "History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes."

Napoleon Bonaparte "What is history but a fable agreed upon?"

Karl Marx "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

Winston Churchill "History is written by the victors."

Thomas Jefferson "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

John Maynard Keynes "Ideas shape the course of history."

William Shakespeare "There is a history in all men's lives."

Mark Twain "The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice."

Henry David Thoreau "It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man."

Alexander Smith "I go into my library and all history unrolls before me."

Robert Heinlein "A generation which ignores history has no past and no future."

Marshall McLuhan "Only the vanquished remember history."

Mohandas Gandhi "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

Stephen Covey "Live out of your imagination, not your history."

Martin Luther King, Jr. "We are not makers of history. We are made by history."

Dwight D. Eisenhower "Things have never been more like the way they are today in history."

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130 Famous Quotes About History and Why It Is So Important

Famous and inspiring history quotes on why history is important, making history and how history repeats itself.

While not all of us are eager to study history as a discipline, we are all fascinated when we hear a good story from the past — whether it’s about the way people used to live or how empires were built.

Humans have found ways to leave a trace of their existence — from cave carvings to heroic acts that are remembered hundreds of years after they happened. Some people made history, others wrote about it.

Technology has made recording historical events easier than ever. Every fact demands great evidence and today we have all the means to offer it. But it hasn’t always been this way. Some of the stories we know might be pure fiction, but that doesn’t make them less fascinating.

It seems that history has a funny way of repeating itself — and not always in a good way.  Sometimes it happened because people didn’t know enough about past mistakes. Other times, they did, yet they’ve learned nothing from them.

From famous writers to inventors, philosophers and politicians, everyone has an opinion on the meaning and importance of history.

Here Are 130 Famous History Quotes about Why History is so Important, How It Repeats Itself and Making History

Quotes about why history is important.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. MARCUS GARVEY

If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. MICHAEL CRICHTON

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because ‘What if?’ is the big thing. KATE ATKINSON

The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present. ERNEST DIMNET

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. B. C. FORBES

If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. E. O. WILSON

A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.   ROBERT A HEINLEIN

Our history is not our destiny. ALAN COHEN

The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do. D. H. LAWRENCE

Life moves fast. As much as you can, learn from your history, you have to move forward. EDDIE VEDDER

Quotes about how history repeats itself

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. KURT VONNEGUT

The past changes a little every time we retell it. HILARY MANTEL

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. KARL MARX

History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all. WILL DURANT

I’ve been completely fascinated with history because it tells everything about what’s going to happen next because it’s cyclical, everything repeats in general. EMILIE AUTUMN

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle. ERIC HOFFER

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. JAMES BALDWIN

Quotes about making history

It had long come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. LEONARDO DA VINCI

Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it. OSCAR WILDE

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. MAHATMA GANDHI

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. HARRY S. TRUMAN

History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this. KARL MARX

We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today. HENRY FORD

Today is either the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. Today we are making history. ECKHARD PFEIFFER

The history of the world is the biography of the great man. And I said: The great man always acts like a thunder. He storms the skies, while others are waiting to be stormed. THOMAS CARLYLE

The people who have really made history are the martyrs. ALEISTER CROWLEY

The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces – in nature, in society, in man himself. LEON TROTSKY

We are not makers of history. We are made by history. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. ROBERT F. KENNEDY

The main thing is to make history, not to write it. OTTO VON BISMARCK

History is written by the victors. WINSTON CHURCHILL

Famous history quotes

Blood alone moves the wheels of history. MARTIN LUTHER

Revolutions are the locomotives of history. KARL MARX

Human history in essence is the history of ideas. H. G. WELLS

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again. MAYA ANGELOU

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. GEORGE ORWELL ( more George Orwell quotes )

History is a set of lies agreed upon. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ( more Napoleon Bonaparte quotes )

Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both. C. WRIGHT MILLS

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man. HENRY DAVID THOREAU

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. THOMAS JEFFERSON

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Human history is not the product of the wise direction of human reason, but is shaped by the forces of emotion — our dreams, our pride, our greed, our fears, and our desire for revenge. LIN YUTANG

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul. LORD ACTON

Whether in commerce, science, or politics — history remembers the artists. NAVAL RAVIKANT

We’ll be remembered more for what we destroy than what we create. CHUCK PALAHNIUK

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler. FRANZ KAFKA

On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born. ALFRED DE VIGNY

The best prophet of the future is the past. LORD BYRON

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong. WINSTON CHURCHILL

History is a pack of lies we play on the dead. VOLTAIRE

The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it. KARL MARX

History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals. MALCOLM X ( more Malcolm X quotes )

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. ARISTOTLE

We learn from history that we don’t learn from history! DESMOND TUTU

History is merely gossip. OSCAR WILDE

History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor. MAHMOUD DARWISH

We are all tourists in history, and irony is what we win in wars. ANATOLE BROYARD

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed — if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. GEORGE ORWELL – 1984 ( more 1984 quotes )

Quotes about black history

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Black history is American history. MORGAN FREEMAN

The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles. KARL MARX

You cannot amputate your history from your destiny, because that is redemption. BETH MOORE

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Funny history quotes

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull. ANATOLE FRANCE

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time. C. S. LEWIS

On human stupidity: It is one of the most powerful forces that shape history. YUVAL NOAH HARARI

Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness. A. J. P. TAYLOR

When the great history of trouble is written, my family will stand extremely high in the table of contents. ALLAN SHERMAN

History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. AMBROSE BIERCE

Anyone who believes you can’t change history has never tried to write his memoirs. DAVID BEN GURION

A poet in history is divine, but a poet in the next room is a joke. MAX EASTMAN

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist. H. L. MENCKEN

I felt like a pickle stepping into history. BILL CLINTON

People take the longest possible paths, digress to numerous dead ends, and make all kinds of mistakes. Then historians come along and write summaries of this messy, nonlinear process and make it appear like a simple, straight line. DEAN KAMEN

Yeah, I read history. But it doesn’t make you nice. Hitler read history, too. JOAN RIVERS

History can bring luck: this is what we can call optimism. STEPHANE HESSEL

History never looks like history when you are living through it. JOHN W. GARDNER

Hindsight is the historian’s necessary vice. HILARY MANTEL

History quotes for teachers

History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. E. L. DOCTOROW

Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort. MASON COOLEY

Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people’s thoughts. HILARY MANTEL

Every historian discloses a new horizon. GEORGE SAND

History is a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. WELLS

The historian is a prophet looking backward. KARL WILHELM FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL

To understand a science, it is necessary to know its history. AUGUSTE COMTE

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. BARBARA TUCHMAN

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. RUDYARD KIPLING

History is information. Memory is part of your identity. DAVID MILIBAND

People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make. GILBERT K. CHESTERTON

There are so many times and places in history in our world that I just don’t know anything about, and when I learn about them they’re always fascinating. ANDREW STANTON

The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with. GOLDA MEIR

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. RONALD REAGAN

History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory. GEORGE SANTAYANA

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like. E. L. DOCTOROW

History quotes for students

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning. HERMANN HESSE

What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past. VICTOR HUGO

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. BARUCH SPINOZA

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Work hard, have fun and make history. JEFF BEZOS

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity. HERMANN HESSE

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know. HARRY S. TRUMAN

You don’t hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school. STEPHEN AMBROSE

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft. WINSTON CHURCHILL

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood? CARL JUNG

Study men, not historians. HARRY S. TRUMAN

Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms. ANGELA CARTER

I can’t change history, I don’t want to change history. I can only change the future. I’m working on that. BORIS BECKER

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life. NORMAN COUSINS

Unlike any other time in our history, we have to know that staying in school and getting an education is the most important thing you can do. ALEXIS HERMAN

A myth is far truer than a history, for a history only gives a story of the shadows, whereas a myth gives a story of the substances that cast the shadows. ANNIE BESANT

If you don’t know history, it is as if you were born yesterday. HOWARD ZINN

A little library, growing every year, is an honorable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books. HENRY WARD BEECHER

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

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past. DOUGLAS HURD

Ideas shape the course of history. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Many of the greatest crimes in history were caused not by hatred, but rather by indifference. They were caused by people who could have done something, but did not even bother lifting a finger. YUVAL NOAH HARARI

Whatever we do or fail to do will influence the course of history. ARTHUR HENDERSON

Live out of your imagination, not your history. STEPHEN COVEY 

I believe that we must maintain pride in the knowledge that the actions we take, based on our own decisions and choices as individuals, link directly to the magnificent challenge of transforming human history. DAISAKU IKEDA

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made. MICHELLE OBAMA

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. MARGE PIERCY

History quotes about love

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAËL

Each time you happen to me all over again. EDITH WHARTON

Once I had a love and it was divine. BLONDIE

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. NICOLE KRAUSS

Only one life, that soon is past. Only what’s done with love will last. UNKNOWN

There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. SARAH DESSEN

Come out of the circle of time. And into the circle of love. RUMI

And it’s like some tiny nothing that sets off a natural disaster halfway across the world, only this was the opposite of disaster, how by accident she saved me with that thoughtless act of grace, and she never knew, and how that, too, is the part of the history of love. NICOLE KRAUSS

Flavia Medrut is a freelance writer, researcher and part-time psychologist. She believes music, long walks and a good sense of humor are imperative in keeping one’s sanity.

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Quotes About History

Mr. Szasz was a professor of history at the University of New Mexico. He died in 2010 at the age of 70. He assembled this list of historical quotations for HNN in 2005.

More Comments:

Russel john tarr - 4/12/2008.

Hi, I've put together an activity for students to stimulate discussion about some of these quotes (and many others!) at http://www.activehistory.co.uk/quotes.htm Feedback appreciated!

Rod Ellis MacLean - 3/7/2007

I wonder why there are so few quotes frmo women in that list?

Tim Lacy - 5/8/2006

"History is philosophy teaching by examples." - Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, 'Letters on the Study and Use of History', 1770 (p. 14).

Lorraine Paul - 1/21/2006

I am absolutely amazed that the most famous, and relevant, quote regarding history has been totally ignored by all you learned people! Are you all so narrow-minded as to eschew a quote because it was made by Karl Marx? Is intellectual inquiry so stifled in the US? Please, please tell me this isn't so!! "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Even though one may not agree with it, it is too important to be ignored.

Alison Hoff - 12/29/2005

The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will only escape it by adding somethign new." Wendell Berry

Chris Connolly - 7/16/2005

The phrase 'history is, indeed, an argument without end' did not originate with Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Its origin is in the 1949 work by the Dutch historian Pieter Geyl 'Napoleon: For and Against'.

HNN - 5/4/2005

"The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption, which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings." -Edward Gibbon

HNN - 3/23/2005

"Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no-one has asked them." -- Leo Tolstoy.

Stephanie Mei Legaspi Gaw - 2/11/2005

"History is the start of a ending, the terminal of a beginning and the summary of everything."

matt john richards - 9/27/2004

Why is it that no one cares about the wolrds around us until the worlds around us collapse on us?

Chris Michael Cromwell - 9/9/2004

History is how the people of tomorrow remember today. The past is seen as what is wanted to be seen. Those who record our history write their history, not the world's. God stands as the only one who truly remembers everything of our lifetimes.

Adrian Arceo - 7/29/2004

“Reasons vindicating the study of history are just excuses made by historians to justify their interests” - Adrian Arceo

Vince Le - 9/18/2003

I know nothing but of my own ignorance History is written by ignorant people biased subiminally

Fred Brems - 9/4/2003

Excellent selection of quotes! Thanks for your work. However, I am looking for one of Winston Churchill's in particular about writing history - it has to do with historians only being able to carry a torch back in time and see shadows and not much area. Any idea? I saw it once awhile back but have been unable to locate it anywhere. No rush. Thanks! Fred

Karl Krause - 9/2/2003

I myself have been philophisizing about history and here is my conclusion and philosophy about history. The present is merely a patch for history taken from the same piece of cloth. We as humans fail at the same things over and over and no matter how we try to sew them up, we still manage to fail. Things come apart. The fabric we use to patch up the hole of history tears and we must repatch again and again. Maybe there is something we are not learning?

Jim Turner - 8/26/2003

“Every old man that dies is a library that burns” — Amadou Hampate Ba, African ethnographer Thanks for your quote list, I will pass it on to many rural history curators throughout Arizona.

editor - 8/4/2003

Will Bagley, writing in the Salt Lake Tribune http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08032003/utah/80804.asp Historians do a terrible job explaining history. When asked to rate professions, American high school students picked fighter pilot as the most exciting occupation and historian as most boring, because history was all figured out. Wrong. History is littered with unanswered questions and unresolved enigmas -- and every answer raises 10 new questions. We fail to communicate how fascinating our jobs are. As historian Dale Morgan wrote, "I find the more I find out, the more I need to find out."

James Jones - 7/25/2003

"I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush, May 10, 2000

editor - 7/22/2003

James F. Brooks, as quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 2003: "You may be done with the past, or think that you are, but it's never really finished with you." http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i36/36a01401.htm

James Wilson - 5/10/2003

The quotation by Catherine Morland ("I often think it odd that it [history] should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.") ought to be attributed to the author, Jane Austen. Catherine Morland is the heroine of _Northanger Abbey_.

John Kipper - 5/1/2003

One of my favorites is: "History is the process by which complicated truth is reduced to simplified falsehood." I read this years ago and cannot remember the author's name. CAn any out there help me?

Lloyd Drako - 4/30/2003

"There is no logic or justice in history, there is only chronology." Paul Johnson

John Shilrey - 4/30/2003

Written history is as good as the scholarship of the historian. Good historical scholars are are rare and wonderful people. John B. Shirley

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