Historical Quotes - Page 2

• History viewed from the inside is always a dark, digestive mess, far different from the easily recognizable cow viewed from afar by historians.

  Dan Simmons

  Dark, Different, Afar

  Dan Simmons (2011). “Hyperion”, p.231, Spectra

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• 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 Kennedy

  Change, Courage, Creativity

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

  H. L. Mencken

  History, Novelists, Unsuccessful

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

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• We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist.

  Queen Victoria

  Leadership, Inspirational Life, Winning

  To A. J. Balfour, in 'Black Week', December 1899

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• I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.

  Harry S. Truman

  Freedom, Agency, Gestapo

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• You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Order

  "Tremendous Trifles" by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Ch. 12, (p. 63), 1955.

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• I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

  George McGovern

  Dream, Peace, Military

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• History is a vast early warning system.

  Norman Cousins

  History, Warning

  "Saturday Review" Magazine, April 15, 1978.

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• The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Rights, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.116, Rowman & Littlefield

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• But all the other frenzies of passions-impious both toward the bodies and toward the sexes-beyond the laws of nature, we banish not only from the threshold, but from all shelter of the Church, because they are not sins, but monstrosities.

  Tertullian

  Christian, Sex, Passion

  Tertullian (2012). “The Sacred Writings of Tertullian (Annotated Edition)”, p.1309, Jazzybee Verlag

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• To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

  James Buchanan

  Alliances, Disputes, Policy

  James Buchanan, James Buchanan Henry (1910). “The Works of James Buchanan: Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence”

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• If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbours those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force.

  Dick Cheney

  Military, Believe, Thinking

  "Cheney: Saddam Wants Nuclear Weapons", www.foxnews.com. September 9, 2002.

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• Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.

  Eric Hobsbawm

  Past, People, History

  "Mapping the Nation". Book edited by Gopal Balakrishnan and Benedict Anderson, 1996.

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• To secure your historical standing, be sure you are the first to write about it.

  Winston Churchill

  Writing, Firsts, Standing

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• We've backed off in good faith to try and give you a chance to straighten this problem out. But I am going to beg with you for a minute. I'm going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.

  James Mattis

  Faith, Military, Patriotic

  "19 Unforgettable Quotes From Retiring General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis" by Geoffrey Ingersoll and Paul Szoldra, www.businessinsider.com. January 23, 2013.

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• Kings are the slaves of history.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Kings, History, Slave

  Leo Tolstoy (2011). “War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky”, p.605, Vintage

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• History repeats itself.

  George Eliot

  Wise, Wisdom, History

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• Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

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• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Patriotic, Past, Rushing

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• While boasting of our noble deeds we're careful to conceal the ugly fact that by an iniquitous money system we have nationalized a system of oppression which, though more refined, is not less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.

  Horace Greeley

  Liberty, Bankers, Noble

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• The Federal Reserve System is nothing more than legalized counterfeit.

  Ron Paul

  Federal Reserve, Counterfeit, Reserves

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• A Republic, if you can keep it.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Political, Republic, Politics

  Quoted in American Historical Review, Apr. 1906

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• What is history but a fable agreed upon?

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Time, Memories, Writing History

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• Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, - attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

  Samuel Johnson

  Listening, Promise, Age

  'Rasselas' (1759) ch. 1

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

  Mark Twain

  Sad, Writing History, Ink

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.54, St. Martin's Press

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