History seems to us an arena of instincts and fashions, of appetite, avarice, and craving for power, of blood lust, violence, destruction, and wars, of ambitious ministers, venal generals, bombarded cities, and we too easily forget that this is only one of its many aspects. Above all we forget that we ourselves are a part […]
History Quotes
History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription moulders from the tablet; the statue falls from the pedestal. – Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand, and their epitaphs but characters written in the dust?
We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentic history. That certain Kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend on as true; but all the coloring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture.
Popularity is history’s pocket change. Courage is the true currency of history.
The individual person, I think, most of all determines what will happen. There is a “looseness” in the joining together of happenings so that a certain past does not necessarily mean a certain future. An unexpected turn can be given to history by just one person’s beliefs, character, and way of life.
Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of what men believe happened.
The game of History is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of thr majority in the middle.
Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
‘History,’ Stephen said, ‘is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.’
War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.
