“History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”– Ambrose Bierce
“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.”– Franz Kafka
“What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.”– Victor Hugo
“History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.”– Will Durant
“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”– Alexis de Tocqueville
“History is a race between education and catastrophe.”– H.G. Wells
“History is a vast early warning system.”– Norman Cousins
“Human history in essence is the history of ideas.”– H.G. Wells
“The pull, the attraction of history, is in our human nature. What makes us tick? Why do we do what we do? How much is luck the deciding factor?”– David McCullough
“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
“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
“Isn’t history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom?”– Emile Cioran
“History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory.”– George Santayana
“History provides no precise guidelines.”– Douglas Hurd
“History has been the history of warfare.”– Godfrey Reggio
“History is a resource.”– Laura Linney
“History develops, art stands still.”– E.M. Forster
“History is more or less bunk.”– Henry Ford
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James Baldwin
History is who we are and why we are the way we are. David McCullough
I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all. James Baldwin
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Mahatma Gandhi
Revolutions are the locomotives of history. Karl Marx
Blood alone moves the wheels of history. Martin Luther
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. Marcus Garvey
I do not speak Hebrew, but I understand that it has no word for ‘history’. The closest word for it is memory. David Miliband
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
The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles. Karl Marx
“For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.”
“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other.”
“Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.”
“And having wisdom with each studious year, in meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, and shaped his weapon with an edge severe, sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.”
“Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.”
“The first duty of an historian is to be on guard against his own sympathies.”
“History is a race between education and catastrophe.”
“The pyramids, attached with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.”
“History, a distillation of rumour.”– Thomas Carlyle
“Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.”– Hermann Hesse