Quotes by Historians

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind. Cleveland Amory
Time Patience Cats Pet Enormous Kind Cat Well Knows Around Limitations Been Any Human Anyone Length Who Ever
We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place. Daniel J. Boorstin
Reality Our Those Weaknesses Haunted Put Primarily Vices Place Suffer Illusions Images
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. Edward Gibbon
Conversation Solitude Genius School Understanding
Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up. Hannah Arendt
Power Lying Those Pick Know Make Up Revolutionaries Revolutions Then Who Street
The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amounts to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle. Hannah Arendt
Odds Overwhelming Everyday Statistical Guise Miracle Laws Purposes New Practical Always Probability Happens Which Against Certainty Therefore Appears Amount
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible. Hannah Arendt
Future Promises Way Possible Reliable Making Human Ordering Predictable Uniquely Human Way Extent
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution. Hannah Arendt
Day Conservative Will Become Revolution Radical Most Revolutionary After
The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies. Henry Adams
Men Power Victim Self Sort Effect Ends Tumor Aggravation Publicity Sympathies
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. Henry Steele Commager
Patriotism Dangerous Will Criticism Men Think Find Policies Equate Always Authority Subversive
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen. Herodotus
Fear Better Half Cowardly Evils Run Risk Remain Noble Subject Anticipate Than Being Happen Might Boldness
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. James Anthony Froude
Character You Yourself Dream Must Hammer Forge Cannot
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself. Livy
Will Carefully Fraudulent Betray Outset Generally Concealed However End Itself Intent In The End
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Mary Ritter Beard
Travel Change Living Sights Seeing More Ideas Permanent Than Goes Certainly Deep
The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us. Michel Foucault
Love Behavior Power Everyday Our Heads Adversary Causes Very To Love Us Exploits Strategic Fascism Thing Desire
A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man. Tacitus
Nature Man Oppression Resist Desire
When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied. Tacitus
State Corrupt Laws Most Then
We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school. Thucydides
Best Man Remember School One-Man He Another Trained Same Much Should Who
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Will Durant
Education Ignorance Own Nothing Progressive Our Everything Knew Know Years Years Ago Discovery Sixty Now
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. Will Durant
Good History Clever Nothing Say Good Thing Always Often Lessons Thing
Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance. Will Durant
Knowledge Ignorance Our Mirage Expanding Desert
Humans have an amazing capacity to believe in contradictory things. For example, to believe in an omnipotent and benevolent God but somehow excuse Him from all the suffering in the world. Or our ability to believe from the standpoint of law that humans are equal and have free will and from biology that humans are just organic machines. Yuval Noah Harari
God Suffering World Law Amazing Will Free Example Free Will Organic Believe Biology Omnipotent Our Benevolent Machines Ability Somehow Excuse For Example Equal Him Contradictory Just Capacity Standpoint Things Humans
The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle. Alexis de Tocqueville
Life Game Battle Crisis Like Passed Revolutionary American Whole Chance
Millions of Americans cannot tell you who lived at Mount Vernon or who wrote the Declaration of Independence - let alone the Emancipation Proclamation. But they know that to be 'a Benedict Arnold' is to be a traitor of the deepest dye - someone who coldly betrays not only a sacred cause but every moral scruple along the way. Arthur L. Herman
Alone You Cause Independence Every Way Emancipation Tell Moral Someone Betrays Only Sacred Along Know Wrote Arnold Vernon Mount American Traitor Dye Cannot Proclamation Declaration Who Lived Deepest Millions
That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment. Doris Kearns Goodwin
Leadership People Following About Simply Opinion Where Convincing Your Ground Moment Popular Popular Opinion
The Third World is not a reality but an ideology. Hannah Arendt
Reality World Ideology Third Third World
It is always good men who do the most harm in the world. Henry Adams
Good World Men Good Men Most Always Who Harm
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