History Quotes - Page 15

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

every idiot who goes about with a 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

You and I were long friends: you are now my enemy, and I am yours.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Language is an archaeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.

History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always feels uncomfortable.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.

History -- its what those bitter old men write.

Silence ensures that history repeats itself.

History is nothing but a procession of false Absolutes, a series of temples raised to pretexts, a degradation of the mind before the Improbable.

Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories.

The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.

The past actually happened. History is what someone took the time to write down.

Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.

History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.

You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.

History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

We have no butter... but I ask you, would you rather have butter or guns? Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely makes us fat.

Athens built the Acropolis. Corinth was a commercial city, interested in purely materialistic things. Today we admire Athens, visit it, preserve the old temples, yet we hardly ever set foot in Corinth.