Historical Quotes - Page 23

• The history of capitalism has been so totally re-written that many people in the rich world do not perceive the historical double standards involved in recommending free trade and free market to developing countries.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, People, Double Standard

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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• To say that historical conditions made personal life possible, and with it the self-consciousness that allowed psychoanalysis to emerge, is to tell half the story: one also has to consider that the erotic impulse, ever pressing for satisfaction, had something to do with making the history that encouraged its expression.

  Ellen Willis

  Self, Expression, Erotic

  "Historical Analysis". "Dissent", Winter 2005.

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• It is possible to express the laws of thermodynamics in the form of independent principles , deduced by induction from the facts of observation and experiment, without reference to any hypothesis as to the occult molecular operations with which the sensible phenomena may be conceived to be connected; and that course will be followed in the body of the present treatise. But, in giving a brief historical sketch of the progress of thermodynamics, the progress of the hypothesis of thermic molecular motions cannot be wholly separated from that of the purely inductive theory.

  William John Macquorn Rankine

  Independent, Law, Giving

  William John Macquorn Rankine (1869). “A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers by William John Macquorn Rankine”, p.28

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• History teaches us that a given view has been abandoned in favor of another by all men, or by all competent men, or perhaps by only the most vocal men; it does not teach us whether the change was sound or whether the rejected view deserved to be rejected. Only an impartial analysis of the view in question, an analysis that is not dazzled by the victory or stunned by the defeat of the adherents of the view concerned - could teach us anything regarding the worth of the view and hence regarding the meaning of the historical change.

  Leo Strauss

  Men, Views, Victory

  "Natural Right and History". Book by Leo Strauss, 1953.

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• Nothing ought to be said or done which could create the impression that unbiased reconsideration of the most elementary premises of philosophy is a merely academic or historical affair.

  Leo Strauss

  Philosophy, Done, Unbiased

  Leo Strauss (1953). “Natural Right and History”, p.31, University of Chicago Press

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• History is valuable, to begin with, because it is true; and this, though not the whole of its value, is the foundation and condition of all the rest. That all knowledge, as such, is in some degree good, would appear to be at least probable; and the knowledge of every historical fact possesses this element of goodness, even if it posses no other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Facts, Foundation

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.76, Psychology Press

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• Of course, we also are soberly aware that historical problems remain in cross-strait relations, and that there will be issues in the future that will require time, patience and joint efforts to resolve.

  Xi Jinping

  Issues, Effort, Joints

  "China’s Xi pledges peaceful ties with Taiwan in meeting" by Stacy Hsu, www.taipeitimes.com. February 26, 2013.

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• Though [Charles Guignebert] could not accept either the Christ myth theory, which held that no historical Jesus existed, or the Dutch Radical denial that Paul authored any of the epistles, Guignebert took both quite seriously.

  Robert M. Price

  Jesus, Denial, Dutch

  "The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief". Book by Tom Flynn, 2007.

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• I am guiding you to seek truth from the facts of the historical conditions of our society and to identify the problems. The correct solutions will come with the correct identification of the problems.

  Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

  Our Society, Facts, Problem

  Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1994). “My Dearest Daughter: A Letter from the Death Cell”

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• The visual possibility of seeing the historical person (as opposed to the eternal Qur'anic man) on screen is arguably the single most important event allowing Iranians access to modernity.

  Hamid Dabashi

  Men, Important Events, Possibility

  Hamid Dabashi (2001). “Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, and Future”, p.15, Verso

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• Written history may, in the course of its narrative, use some of the laws established by the various sciences, but its own task remains that of relating the essential sequence of historical action and, qua history, to tell what happened, not why.

  Lloyd deMause

  Law, Essentials, Tasks

  Lloyd DeMause (1975). “The New Psychohistory”, New York : Psychohistory Press

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• Whole great chunks of written history are of little value to the psychohistorian, while other vast areas which have been much neglected by historians - childhood history, content analysis of historical imagery, and so on - suddenly expand from the periphery to the center of the psychohistorian's conceptual world, simply because his or her own new questions require material nowhere to be found in history books.

  Lloyd deMause

  Book, Childhood, Analysis

  "Foundations of Psychohistory". Book by Lloyd deMause, 1982.

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• Sociologists and historians have avoided looking for the family sources of wars and social violence. Whenever a group produces murderers, the early parental relationship must have been abusive and neglectful. Yet this elementary truth has not even begun to be considered in historical research; just stating that poor mothering lies behind wars seems blasphemous.

  Lloyd deMause

  War, Lying, Groups

  "The Emotional Life of Nations". Book by Lloyd deMause, 2002.

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• For many women, the experience of prostitution stems from the historical trauma of colonization.

  Melissa Farley

  Prostitution, Colonization, Trauma

  "Prostitution in Vancouver: Violence and the Colonization of First Nations Women". Transcultural Psychiatry 42, article co-written with J. Lynne and A. Cotton, 2005.

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• In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.

  Robert Gilpin

  Running, Believe, Movement

  Robert Gilpin (2016). “The Political Economy of International Relations”, p.336, Princeton University Press

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• The historical record suggests that the transition to to a new hegemon has always been attended by what I have elsewhere called hegemonic war.

  Robert Gilpin

  War, Transition, Records

  Robert Gilpin (2016). “The Political Economy of International Relations”, p.351, Princeton University Press

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• Christendom is not primarily a mental construct. It is above all a fact, indeed the longest historical experience the Church has had. Hence the deep impact it has made on its life and thought.

  Gustavo Gutiérrez

  Impact, Church, Facts

  Gustavo Gutiérrez (1988). “A theology of liberation: history, politics, and salvation”

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• In the face of the idea that truth might afford the opposite of satisfaction and turn out to be completely shocking to humanity at any given historical moment, ... the fathers of pragmatism made the satisfaction of the subject the criterion of truth. For such a doctrine there is no possibility of rejecting or even criticizing any species of belief that is enjoyed by its adherents.

  Max Horkheimer

  Father, Opposites, Ideas

  Max Horkheimer (2013). “Eclipse of Reason”, p.35, A&C Black

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• I suspect people would be in for a real shock if they knew the depths of his [Obama's] historical ignorance.

  Charles Foster Johnson

  Real, Ignorance, People

  "Obama: Bush is Responsible for Chavez (Bzzt! Wrong!)". littlegreenfootballs.com. May 25, 2008.

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• The butchering may continue as it will, it shall remain the historical guilt of the Western powers that they did not promptly provide the sharpest preventative measures against the continued attack-politics Germany undertook. Possibilities existed for this, but no measures were seized upon.

  Friedrich Kellner

  Guilt, Germany, May

  Diary entry, May 29, 1940.

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• The absence from the Dead Sea Scrolls of historical texts proper should not surprise us. Neither in the inter-Testamental period, nor in earlier biblical times, was the recording of history as we understand it a strong point among the Jews.

  Geza Vermes

  Strong, Biblical, Sea

  "The Dead Sea Scrolls in English". Book by Geza Vermes (Chapter 3 "The History of the Community", p. 49), 1962.

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• The military mind tends to be conservative, realistic and historical. The civilian mind tends to be liberal, idealistic and Utopian. Journalists, obviously, are civilians, and they tend to distrust, and to suspect, the military's motives.

  Mark Riebling

  Military, Mind, Conservative

  "Rumsfeld’s Spy Unit". "To the Point" with Warren Olney, NPR, markriebling.blogs.com. October 31, 2002.

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• Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take for granted, indeed, hardly think about, can lead to tremendous mistakes.

  Sara Sheridan

  Mistake, Thinking, Everyday

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• Lemberger's stories are marvelous compounds of scholarship, imagination and empathy. Brought to life with rich historical detail, these biblical women, sidelined and silenced for centuries, prove to be audacious, utterly relatable, and spellbinding companions.

  Michelle Huneven

  Biblical, Imagination, Empathy

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• The next step will be for the colonists on Mars to throw off the hand of the United States. There will be this wonderful historical irony. When the people on Mars write a declaration of independence saying, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident...', the US will be rather pissed off.

  Eric Idle

  Writing, Self, Hands

  "The Wired Diaries 2000". www.wired.com. January 01, 2000.

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