Quotes about History
The Jewish nation, immediately on the death of Solomon, split into two parties, who chose separate kings, and who carried on most rancorous wars against each other.
— Thomas Paine
The House of Commons did not originate as a matter of right in the people to delegate or elect, but as a grant or boon.
— Thomas Paine
Monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes.
— Thomas Paine
Take all the fuming and fretting of the media with a grain of salt. Much of today's news isn't really new. Most of it has happened before and before that.
— Norman Vincent Peale
Step out of the history that is holding you back, Step into the new story you are willing to create.
— Oprah Winfrey
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
— Oscar Wilde
The one charm about the past is that it is the past.
— Oscar Wilde
Memory is the diary we all carry about with us.
— Oscar Wilde
America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.
— Oscar Wilde
My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip. What is the difference between scandal and gossip? Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
— Oscar Wilde
The things I believed in dont exist any more. It's foolish to pretend that they do. Western Civilization finally went up in smoke in the chimneys at Dachau but I was too infatuated to see it. I see it now.
— Cormac McCarthy
Each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins.
— Cormac McCarthy