Quotes on History

A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can only be a footnote.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

History should be written as philosophy.

There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?

Do what you will this life's a fiction, And is made up of contradiction.

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

Until we reach equality in education, we can't reach equality in the larger society.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.

History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.

Beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.