“Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.”
Topic
history
951 quotes
Quotes, most loved first
“Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.”
“History is a race between education and catastrophe.”
“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”
“From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn.”
“But perhaps the rest of us could have separate classes in science appreciation, the wonder of science, scientific ways of thinking, and the history of scientific ideas, rather than laboratory experience.”
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.”
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.”
“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
“History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”
“Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.”
“What is history? An echo of the past in the future a reflex from the future on the past.”
“For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end.”
“Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.”
“God cannot alter the past, though historians can.”
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
“Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”
“The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.”
“Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.”