170 Historical Quotes
Following is our list of historical quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about historical truth.
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Famous Historical Quotes
That's history. I say history because it happened in the past. — Murray Walker
History is on every occasion the record of that which one age finds worthy of note in another. — Jacob Burckhardt
History is the story of events, with praise or blame. — Cotton Mather
Every true history must force us to remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future. — G. M. Trevelyan
History is a light that illuminates the past, and a key that unlocks the door to the future. — Runoko Rashidi
The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation. — John Hope Franklin
Is your Christianity ancient history--or current events? — Samuel M. Shoemaker
Historia (Inquiry); so that the actions of of people will not fade with time. — Herodotus
Study the past if you would divine the future. — Confucius
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. — Napoleon
Historical analogy is the last refuge of people who can't grasp the current situation. — Kim Stanley
History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events. — A. J. P. Taylor
History is a vision of God's creation on the move. — Arnold J. Toynbee
History is the ship carrying living memories to the future. — Stephen Spender
History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below. — Voltaire
Short Historical Quotes
- The truth is the greatest enemy of the State. — Unknown Author
- Any movement in history which attempts to perpetuate itself, becomes reactionary. — Josip Broz Tito
- The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win. — Leonid Brezhnev
- You have to know the past to understand the present. — Carl Sagan
- What is Money? will be regarded as the defining question of our time in history. — Robert Breedlove
- Truth is treason in the empire of lies. — Ron Paul
- Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State. — James Jesus Angleton
- Our core market has been historically gamers and digital content creators. — Jensen Huang
- Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos. — John Marshall
- The bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creates out of nothing. — William Paterson
Historical Image Quotes
Inspirational Historical Quotes
History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure. — Thurgood Marshall
They must find it difficult ... those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. — Gerald Massey
Gender equality, historically has been predominantly a women's movement for women. But I think the impact of gender inequality and how it's affecting men hasn't really been addressed. — Sayings
As for the historical inspirations I drew on in writing The Snow Queen, I suppose I would call them more cross-cultural inspirations, though they frequently involve past societies as well as present day ones. — Joan D. Vinge
Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
I didn't really have anyone in particular who inspired me or that I found fascinating as a kid. It wasn't until I was in my early twenties that I began to find people - and they were all historic figures - that I began to relate to and find some inspiration in. — Chelsea Manning
There is a history in all men's lives. — William Shakespeare
Buckminster Fuller was one of those world historic geniuses who reminded us of the extraordinary things that are possible, and inspires all of us to set about doing them! — Marianne Williamson
Buffalo is one of America's great designed cities. The interweaving of great architecture, landscape architecture and important historic sites makes Buffalo a must see destination for preservationists, designers, history buffs, and anyone wishing to see an inspiring example of American design. — Richard Moe
One of the things I enjoy most about writing historical romance is researching inspiring backgrounds and settings. — Nicola Cornick
Historical Truth Quotes
To write history is as important as to make history. It is an unchanging truth that if the writer does not remain true to the maker, then it takes on a quality that will confuse humanity. — Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
The supernatural birth of Christ, his miracles, his resurrection and ascension, remain eternal truths, whatever doubts may be cast on their reality as historical facts. — David Friedrich Strauss
For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place. — Maya Angelou
Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Truth and History. 21 Men. The Boy Bandit King - He Died As He Lived. — Billy the Kid
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
The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one. — Reinhold Niebuhr
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. — Henry Ward Beecher
Atheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purifiy its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery. — Bede Griffiths
The truth is an arbitrary, shifting, culturally relative, and historically molded phenomenon. — Ken Wilber
Historical Facts Quotes
Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed — Paulo Freire
Jesus was a white man, too. Its like we have, hes a historical figure thats a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black? — Megyn Kelly
No, this customary aim of research by excavators is completely foreign to the historical work with which I am occupied... my sole and only aim is to be able to establish a historical fact, on which I disagree with some eminent historians and geographers. — Heinrich Schliemann
The simple fact that the Christian fellowship, founded on belief in Jesus' resurrection, came into existence and flourished in the very city where he was executed and buried is powerful evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb. — William Lane Craig
Coconut oil has been described as the “World's Healthiest Dietary Oil”. There is a mountain of historical evidence and medical research to verify this fact — Bruce Fife
Back in the 1940s, people were sleeping on average just a little bit over eight hours a night. — Matthew Walker
Though my books are written from a historical perspective, I have goon so far back that I am in the realm of prehistorical speculation rather than simple historical fact to weave my stories around. — Jean M. Auel
Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic. — Hu Shih
[A] great embarrassing fact… haunts all attempts to represent the market as the highest form of human freedom: that historically, impersonal, commercial markets originate in theft. — David Graeber
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
Historical Political Quotes
An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service. — Harry S. Truman
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. — Thomas Jefferson
When one group rules another, the relationship between the two is political. When such an arrangement is carried out over a long period of time it develops an ideology (feudalism, racism, etc.). All historical civilizations are patriarchies: their ideology is male supremacy. — Kate Millett
Let us put the normal divisions of politics aside. Let us come together as one country; let us seize this historic moment to shift the balance of power from the corridors of Westminster to the streets and communities of Scotland. — Nicola Sturgeon
Sooner I'd try to change history than turn political, than try convincing others to write letters or to vote or to march or to do something they didn't already feel like doing. — Richard Bach
It's a historical phenomenon that in 250 years, a nation could move from a colony into the most prosperous nation of the world and the leader of the world. It is indeed an achievement, a tribute to the talent of the American nation, the American people and an optimal political and economic system. — Vladimir Putin
You have delivered up our holy German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I solemnly prophesy that this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in your grave for what you have done. — Ian Kershaw
The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as 'free education' is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned institution; it is socialized education - just like socialized medicine or the socialized post office - and cannot possibly be separated from political control. — Frank Chodorov
Anti-Semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-Semitism is a disease. — Daniel Barenboim
The idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant. — Richard Hofstadter
Historical Jesus Quotes
Because in no other person but the historic Jesus of Nazareth has God become man and lived a human life on earth, died to bear the penalty of our sins, and been raised from death and exalted to glory, there is no other Savior, for there is no other person who is qualified to save. — John Stott
This historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It is far more radical than that. It means that God is like Jesus. — D. Elton Trueblood
The resurrection is not merely important to the historic Christian faith; without it, there would be no Christianity. It is the singular doctrine that elevates Christianity above all other world religions. — Adrian Rogers
I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event. — Pinchas Lapide
It is impossible to avoid the suspicion that historical Jesus research is a very safe place to do theology and call it history, to do autobiography and call it biography. — John Dominic Crossan
Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. — Suetonius
Do you believe in the existence of Socrates? Alexander the Great? Julius Caesar? If historicity is established by written records in multiple copies that date originally from near contemporaneous sources, there is far more proof for Christ's existence than for any of theirs. — Dinesh D'Souza
Christians should be ready for a change because Jesus was the greatest changer in history. — Ralph Abernathy
On what does the Christian argument for Immortality really rest? It stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole of historical Christianity-the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. — William Henry Drummond
To believe in Jesus, is to believe that the historic person who lived on this earth more than 2000 years ago was the image of the invisible God. That's a huge leap of faith, but it is my leap of faith, it's the act of faith of the Christian community. — Richard Rohr
Historical Events Quotes
Covering a historic event is perfectly legitimate. It's not sneaking into somebody's boudoir... These people belong to history, and not to record that if you have the opportunity would be wrong. — Elliott Erwitt
When the venture has been made of dealing with historical events and characters, it always seems fair towards the reader to avow what liberties have been taken, and how much of the sketch is founded on history. — Charlotte Mary Yonge
The Renaissance is studded by the names of the artists and architects, with their creations recorded as great historical events. — Arthur Erickson
When I was at Stratford, the very first thing that I was commissioned to work on was trying to make a musical out of the documentary material about the General Strike, which was the next big historical event in England, after the First World War. — Trevor Nunn
Historical novels are, without question, the best way of teaching history, for they offer the human stories behind the events and leave the reader with a desire to know more. — Louis L'Amour
I believe that historians and analysts of historical events need the authority of facts supplied by living witnesses to the events, which they make their subject. — Ibrahim Babangida
History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, [...] The generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A complex is a cluster of energy in the unconscious, charged by historic events, reinforced through repitition, embodying a fragment of our personality, and generating a programmed response and an implicit set of expectations. — Carl Jung
History - an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant — John Barth
I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism and the other great ideas that have shaped political philosophies and therefore the course of human events. — Steven Pinker
Historical Change Quotes
It doesn't matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true. — Paul Watson
All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved. — Hans Kung
When a market makes a historic high, it is telling you something. No matter how many people tell you why the market shouldn't be that high, or why nothing has changed, the mere fact that the price is at a new high tells you something has changed. — Larry Hite
During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well — Walter Benjamin
I think that the essential instruction of the Bible is very much topical. The sole problem is that with every change of historical setting, you need to readjust the interpretation of the message. — Zygmunt Bauman
The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects - making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing. — Susan Sontag
I think you're never going to get somewhere ambitious if you don't start out with great ambitions. What I would say is: we got a start. That to me is a very significant thing. Here we were, a historic meeting to talk about climate change. — Christy Clark
It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves. — Karl Marx
We live in an era with no historical precedents. History is no longer useful as a tool in helping us understand current changes. — Doug Coupland
Our mission is, in truth, historic and world changing - to build, over the next fifty years and beyond, a global low carbon economy. And it is not overdramatic to say that the character and course of the coming century will be set by how we measure up to this challenge — Gordon Brown
Historical Research Quotes
I could write historical fiction, or science fiction, or a mystery but since I find it fascinating to research the clues of some little know period and develop a story based on that, I will probably continue to do it. — Jean M. Auel
The discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences. — Thomas Piketty
I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills. — Iris Chang
America is a melting pot for all different groups of people, historically. And it's rare that the story of all of these people will be told in the history books. So I always felt I had to find out my history for myself and research my roots. — Nas
Those who remember only that the Roosevelts served hot dogs to the royals will be fascinated by this well-researched account of an historic and ennobling relationship - a great story! — James MacGregor Burns
Most architects work in studios largely divorced from academia, as if ideas, criticism and historical research were irrelevant. — David Chipperfield
historical research of the truly scholastic kind is not connected with human beings at all. It is a pure study, like higher mathematics. — C. V. Wedgwood
If it is impossible to judge merit and guilt in the field of natural science, then it is not possible in any field, and historical research becomes an idle, empty activity. — Justus von Liebig
I am not a fan of historical fiction that is sloppy in its research or is dishonest about the real history. — Kate Mosse
It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies. — Antonia Fraser
Great Historical Quotes
A revolution that is based on the people exercising their creativity in the midst of devastation is one of the great historical contributions of humankind. — Grace Lee Boggs
On the eve of this great adventure I send my best wishes to every soldier in the Allied team. To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history; and in the better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride of our doings. — Bernard Law Montgomery
I think one of the great historical contributions of science is to weaken the hold of religion. That's a good thing. — Steven Weinberg
I think the whole, like, cultural diversity and the arty side of London is really, really great. And how it's so historic as well. — Lily Allen
Alexander the Great was not very tall — Greek Proverbs
History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought. — Etienne Gilson
Quite apart from any conscious program, the great cultural historians have always been historical morphologists: seekers after theforms of life, thought, custom, knowledge, art. — Johan Huizinga
We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice. — Pope Paul VI
A people's literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can. — Edith Hamilton
Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process. — Bruce Babbitt
Notable Quotes
A few years ago, researchers noticed a curious phenomenon: people taking metformin were living notably healthier lives — independent, it seemed, of its effect on diabetes. — David Sinclair
National Missile Defense is of a nature to retrigger a proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles. Everything that goes in the direction of proliferation is a bad direction. — Jacques Chirac
I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it. — Billy Graham
There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent. — Michel de Montaigne
Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. — Thomas Jefferson
I did some products for the Apple II, most notably the first small low cost thermal printer, the Silent Type. — Andy Hertzfeld
The most notable fact that our culture imprints on women is a sense of our limits. The most important thing a woman can do for another is to illuminate her actual possibilities. — Adrienne Rich
The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer. — William Penn
We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. — Hillary Clinton
Nice is a pallid virtue. Not like honesty or courage or perseverance. On the other hand, in a nation notably lacking in civility, there is much to be said for nice. — Molly Ivins
People Writing About Historical
More Historical Quotes
As a historical legacy, the Kashmir conflict has been an outstanding issue for more than half a century. — Li Peng
Historically speaking, we went from being Indians to pagans to savages to hostiles to militants to activists to Native Americans. Its five hundred years later and they still cant see us. We are still invisible. — John Trudell
Nothing will stop us. The road to the stars is steep and dangerous. But we're not afraid . . . Space flights can't be stopped. This isn't the work of one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development. — Yuri Gagarin
Divide the world into regional groups as a transitional stage to world government. Populations will more readily abandon their national loyalty to a vague regional loyalty than they will for a world authority. Later the regions can be brought together all the way into a single world dictatorship. — Joseph Stalin
You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning. — Andrew Jackson
Tradition, in its essence, is something simultaneously meta-historical and dynamic: it is an overall ordering force in the service of principles that have the chrism of a superior legitimacy (we may even call them 'principles from above'). — Julius Evola
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
With respect to public acknowledgment of religious belief, it is entirely clear from our nation's historical practices that the Establishment Clause permits this disregard of polytheists and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits the disregard of devout atheists. — Antonin Scalia
According to this view, democracy is a product of western culture, and it cannot be applied to the Middle East which has a different cultural, religious, sociological and historical background. — Recep Tayyip Erdogan
You can never really understand an individual unless you also understand the society,historical time period in which they live,personal troubles, and social issues — C. Wright Mills
Africans and persons of African descent must assume the primary responsibility and leadership in historical research....if we are to continue to leave practically all important historical research and writing concerning the black race to the white man, then we must be prepared to accept, uncomplainingly, the white man's point of view. — Chancellor Williams
The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. — Elbridge Gerry
In the end, the Labour party could cease to represent labour. Stranger historic ironies have happened than that. — Enoch Powell
Black women, historically, have been doubly victimized by the twin immoralities of Jim Crow and Jane Crow. ... Black women, faced with these dual barriers, have often found that sex bias is more formidable than racial bias. — Pauli Murray
Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation. — Unknown Author
I will give you my definition of a nation, and you can add the adjective 'Jewish.' A Nation is, in my mind, an historical group of men of a recognizable cohesion held together by a common enemy. Then, if you add to that the word 'Jewish' you have what I understand to be the Jewish nation. — Theodor Herzl
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
I have resolved never to start an unjust war, but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies. — Charles XII of Sweden
Our responsibility is to rally and lead the whole party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, take up this historic baton and continue working hard for the great renewal of the Chinese nation so that we will stand rock firm in the family of nations and make fresh and greater contributions to mankind. — Xi Jinping
I have the most profound respect for the Department of Justice and the FTC. We in Europe are a younger and I would say junior institution to the historical antitrust experience of the US. — Mario Monti
Historically, the judicial branch has often been the sole protector of the rights of minority groups against the will of the popular majority. — Diane Watson
Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an over-ruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain and positive. Respect the laws of your country. — Daniel Webster
If you think your critics are wrong, prove it. If you think your haters are wrong, prove it. If you think you're right, prove it. Results have historically been the best way to prove you're right. — Patrick Bet-David
We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself. — Bertolt Brecht
In Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, the U.S. underestimated the mentality and strength of small powers and of tribes. The Americans’ own history of physical security and unity may have led them to overestimate the power of their democratic rationalist argument, which believes that compromise, hard work, and even voting would triumph over atavistic, deep-seated historical fears of ‘the other.’ They assumed people would want to come together, whereas in fact many dare not try and would prefer to live apart because of their appearances. — Tim Marshall
Bourgeois class domination is undoubtedly an historical necessity, but, so too, the rising of the working class against it. Capital is an historical necessity, but, so too, its grave digger, the socialist proletariat. — Rosa Luxemburg
Our work has only begun. In our time we have an historic opportunity to shape a global balance of power that favors freedom and that will therefore deepen and extend the peace. And I use the word power broadly, because even more important than military and indeed economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope. — Condoleezza Rice
It is impossible for one who has studied at all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith that they will one day be restored to their historic national home and there enter on a new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity. — Warren G. Harding
Even if I am simply one more woman laying one more brick in the foundation of a new and more humane world, it is enough to make me rise eagerly from my bed each morning and face the challenge of breaking the historic silence that has held women captive for so long. — Judy Chicago
This is a historical lesson of immense significance, and should be kept in mind by anyone who thinks his refusal of bitcoin means he doesn’t have to deal with it. History shows it is not possible to insulate yourself from the consequences of others holding money that is harder than yours. — Saifedean Ammous
Boxing has definitely allowed me to focus on something other than just creating content which I think we've seen historically can be so toxic. — Logan Paul
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