I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words
Alfred De VignyRead
History is a novel for which the people is the author.
Interpretation
What this quote means
History is shaped by the actions and decisions of people.
This quote by Alfred De Vigny suggests that history is not merely a record of events, but rather a narrative crafted by the collective choices and actions of individuals. Just as an author pens a novel, the people contribute their stories, influences, and decisions, thereby forming the legacy of our past.
Themes
HistoryPeopleAuthorNarrativeChoices
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the impact of individual choices in history.
More from Alfred De Vigny
All quotes βThe existence of the soldier, next to capital punishment, is the most grievous vestige of barbarism which survives among men.
Alfred De VignyRead
We shall find in our troubled hearts, where discord reigns, two needs which seem at variance, but which merge, as I think, in a common source - the love of the true, and the love of the fabulous.
Alfred De VignyRead
Do you not see with your own eyes the chrysalis fact assume by degrees the wings of fiction?
Alfred De VignyRead
Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?
Alfred De VignyRead
Of what use is the memory of facts, if not to serve as an example of good or of evil?
Alfred De VignyRead
Similar quotes
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
TacitusRead
Labour is ... not the only source of material wealth, i.e, of the use-values it produces. As William Petty says, Labour is the father of material wealth, the earth is its mother.
Karl MarxRead
Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our adversaries who have practised upon it with no small benefit to their cause. For at the very moment they are eulogizing the reason of men & professing to appeal only to that faculty, they are courting the strongest & most active passion of the human heart - VANITY!
Alexander HamiltonRead
A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes.
Jane JacobsRead
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
Khalil GibranRead