History quotes

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

It is not history which uses men as a means of achieving - as if it were an individual person - its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity - or it will move apart.

If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell.

One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

President Barack Obama has stood watch over the greatest job loss in modern American history. And that, my friends, is one inconvenient truth that will haunt this President throughout history.

History should be written as philosophy.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president - with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln - just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we've got a lot more work to do. And we're gonna keep on at it.

We've persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people - a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it's time to turn the page.

The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.

History does nothing it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250, 000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.