History Quotes

"The proper study of mankind is the past, present, and future of nations."

"History is the judge of nations and their leaders."

"The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals."

"The bourgeoisie have created a world after their own image."

"The history of all previous society is the history of class struggles."

"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors."

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

"Traditional intellectuals identify themselves with the continuity of history and the past."

"History is not made by the dead; it is made by the living in struggle."

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please."

"The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

"A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism."

"The handwriting on the wall becomes graffiti in the corridor of history."

"The great task is to bring the past down from its pedestal."

"The human personality is a creation of historical conditions."

"The eye that learns to look is itself a product of history, fashioned by the very mechanisms of visibility we take for granted."

"Historical time is not a continuous flow but a series of ruptures, breaks, and radical discontinuities."

"History does not move toward liberation; it moves through different regimes of control and domination."

"One must understand the past to navigate the present and shape the future."

"The wisdom of the past is the only reliable guide for the future."

"A nation that forgets its past is condemned to repeat it, but a nation that is enslaved by its past cannot advance."

"The very hinge of history is on small acts done by ordinary people."

"I venture to say that the American Revolution was the English Revolution."

"The unity of mankind is the goal of all history."

"Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory."

"In a state of progressive culture, a people cannot be too well instructed in the history of their ancestors."

"It has been the misfortune of history that great men have not always been good men."

"Every age has its manners; and the manners of ages have much to do with their fortunes."

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."