history - quotes

William Ralph Inge, 1860-1954

was an English author and Anglican prelate

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.

Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880

was a French realist novelist

Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this.

George Santayana, 1863-1952

was an US (Spanish-born) philosopher

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

( The Life of Reason, 1905 )

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), 1835-1910

was an US humorist, novelist, short story author, and wit

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

( "Advice to Youth, 1882 )

Clarence (Seward) Darrow, 1857-1938

was an US defense lawyer

History repeats itself; that's one of the things that's wrong with history.

(Marcus Tullius) Cicero, 106 BC-43 BC

was a Roman author, orator, and politician

To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?

( “Orator” )

James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce, 1882-1941

was an Irish author

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, 1855-1934

was an English dramatist

I believe the future is only the past again, entered through another gate.

Aesop, 620 BC-560 BC

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.