History Quotes
4,145 quotes
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours."
"Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny."
"People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't."
"thus with a kiss I die"
"The first duty of a man is to think for himself"
"If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."
"The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts."
"You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker"
"History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."
"The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars."
"Like Alexander the Great and Caesar, I’m out to conquer the world. But first I have to stop at Walmart and pick up some supplies."
"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
"Do you really believe ... that everything historians tell us about men – or about women – is actually true? You ought to consider the fact that these histories have been written by men, who never tell the truth except by accident."
"Sometimes I feel like we're a knot, too tangled to be taken apart."
"The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution!"
"Those unable to catalog the past are doomed to repeat it."
"I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."
"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end."
"When a man learns to love, he must bear the risk of hatred."
"You are not a victim. No matter what you have been through, you're still here. You may have been challenged, hurt, betrayed, beaten, and discouraged, but nothing has defeated you. You are still here! You have been delayed but not denied. You are not a victim, you are a victor. You have a history of victory."
"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
"Under the guise of being nice guys, the central bankers have done to the people what no army in history has been evil enough to do."
"Today is a new day. Don't let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking action towards the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life!"
"The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too."
"Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures."
"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.[Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803]"
"We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And someday we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in it and cover it up."
"Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle."
"The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, that my friends, that is true perversion!"
"To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is."[The Title Always Comes Last; NEH 2003 Jefferson Lecturer interview profile]"
"I just don't see why the past has to matter."
"She supposed they were imperfections, those marks, but they didn't feel that way to her; they were a history, cut into his body: the map of a life of endless war."
"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else."
"We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience."
"The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know."
"No matter what your history has been, your destiny is what you create today. What are you going to create?"
"It’s hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself."
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level."
"He who doesn't understand history is doomed to repeat it."
"Do you think we can be friends?” I asked.He stared up at the ceiling. “Probably not, but we can pretend."
"الحياة انتظار دائم لشيء جميل ."
هاني نقشبندي
"I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I'm still here. I have a history of victory."
"How would your life be different if…You didn’t allow yourself to be defined by your past? Let today be the day…You stop letting your history interfere with your destiny and awaken to the opportunity to release your greatest self."
"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages."
"Vane grabbed me. “DuLac, let’s chat.”Chat. British-speak for “Stand still while I yell at you."
"In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes."
"The Master said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.”(Analects 2.11)"
"Learning the truth has become my life's love."
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