History Quotes

"Modernity has intensified rather than resolved political struggle."

"The political order is always and everywhere based on prior conflict."

"Civilization does not eliminate the political; it only refines its methods."

"History is not the soil of happiness."

"The march of God in the world is what we call history."

"The past informs the future."

"History is the account of action."

"History does not progress toward freedom; it accumulates scars."

"The past is not over; it haunts the present with the weight of all that might have been otherwise."

"Fascism returned because we never properly mourned or learned from its catastrophes."

"History teaches us that what seemed impossible yesterday can become necessary tomorrow."

"To understand a man you must know his memories. The same is true of nations. But the memories which matter for this purpose are not the chronologies of history."

"History is not the subject of a structure that binds all events together. History is composed of scattered events and ideas."

"The study of history is not the study of the past, but the study of human possibility."

"The purpose of studying the past is to understand why the present is as it is."

"History is not the soil of happiness."

"Our duty is to the past as well as to the future."

"The past haunts us not because we cannot escape it but because we do not understand it."

"History is not the soil of happiness. The periods of happiness are blank pages in the history of nations."

"The absolute becomes concrete through the process of historical development."

"World history is the arena of divine manifestation in human affairs."

"Each stage of history represents a necessary phase in the world-spirit's journey."

"The cunning of reason works through human passions toward historical goals."

"The modern world represents the triumph of the subjective principle in history."

"Legitimacy emerges from concrete historical situations, not abstract principles."

"Historical consciousness reveals that all political orders are temporary arrangements."

"History shows that exceptional measures easily become permanent institutions."

"Revolutionary moments reveal the violence upon which all order ultimately rests."

"Historical understanding requires recognizing oneself as positioned within political reality."

"Historical actors become significant when they successfully define who is friend and enemy."