16+ Carl L. Becker Quotes On Education, World

Carl L. Becker was an American historian who specialized in the history of the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. He was a professor at Cornell University, where he taught for more than 40 years. He was best known for his book, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1922. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Carl L. Becker on leadership, education, life.

The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves - a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future. — Carl L. Becker

The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it. — Carl L. Becker

History is the memory of things said and done. — Carl L. Becker

No class of Americans, so far as I know, has ever objected . . . to any amount of governmental meddling if it appeared to benefit that particular class. — Carl L. Becker

Logic is something the mind has created to conceal its timidity, a hocus-pocus designed to give formal validity to conclusions we are willing to accept if everybody else in our set will too. — Carl L. Becker

To ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false, is essentially a meaningless question. — Carl L. Becker

Corporations have at different times been so far unable to distinguish freedom of speech from freedom of lying that their freedom has to be curbed. — Carl L. Becker

My own mind is my own church. — Carl L. Becker

History is an indispensable even though not the highest form of intellectual endeavor. — Carl L. Becker

No one can deny that much of our modern advertising is essentially dishonest; and it can be maintained that to lie freely and all the time for private profit is not to abuse the right of free speech, whether it is a violation of the law or not. But again the practical question is, how much lying for private profit is to be permitted by law? — Carl L. Becker

Reason is incompetent to answer any fundamental question about God, or morality, or the meaning of life. — Carl L. Becker

All historians, even the most scientific, have bias, if in no other sense than the determination not to have any. — Carl L. Becker

Virginia was in fact a landowning aristocracy, without nobility or merchant class, or any considerable small peasant farming class; and the other Southern colonies, except North Carolina, were on the whole similar to Virginia in these respects. — Carl L. Becker

Generally speaking, men are influenced by books which clarify their own thought, which express their own notions well, or which suggest to them ideas which their minds are already predisposed to accept — Carl L. Becker

All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind. — Carl L. Becker

Serious thinkers are few, and the world is ruled by crude ideas. — Carl L. Becker

Life Lessons by Carl L. Becker

1. Carl L. Becker's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the past in order to make sense of the present and plan for the future.
2. He also taught that history is not simply a collection of facts, but rather an interpretation of the past that is shaped by the perspectives of the historian.
3. Through his work, Becker encourages readers to think critically about history and to consider multiple perspectives when forming their own interpretations.