History Lessons Quotes

History lessons remind us that the states in which we live, their institutions, even their laws, have come to us through conflict, often of the most bloodthirsty sort. Our daily diet of news brings us reports of the shedding of blood, often in regions quite close to our homelands, in circumstances that deny our conception of cultural normality altogether. We succeed, all the same, in consigning the lessons both of history and of reportage to a special and separate category of "otherness" which invalidate our expectations of how our own world will be tomorrow and the day after not at all. Our institutions and our laws, we tell ourselves, have set the human potentiality for violence about with such restraints that violence in everyday life will be punished as criminal by our laws, while its use by our institutions of state will take the particular form of "civilised warfare. ~ Steven Pinker

Alec looked impressed. "I didn't know all that."
Jace hopped on the windowsill and swung his legs. "Not all of us sleep through history lessons."
"I do not
"
"Oh yes you do, and drool on the desk besides."
"Shut up said Magnus, but he said it quite mildly. ~ Cassandra Clare

Music brought the war in Vietnam right into our bedrooms. Songs we heard from America made us interested in politics; they were history lessons in a palatable, exciting form. We demonstrated against the Vietnam and Korean wars, discussed sexual liberation, censorship and pornography and read books by Timothy Leary, Hubert Selby Jr (Last Exit to Brooklyn) and Marshall McLuhan because we'd heard all these people referred to in songs or interviews with musicians. [...] Music, politics, literature, art all crossed over and fed into each other. There were some great magazines around too [...] Even though we couldn't afford to travel, we felt connected to other countries because ideas and events from those places reached us through music and magazines. ~ Viv Albertine

History would be a revelation of the future as much as it was a study of the past. ~ Arundhati Roy

I was reminded of our history lessons, in which we learned about the loot or bounty an army enjoys when a battle is won. I began to see the awards and recognition just like that. They were little jewels without much meaning. I needed to concentrate on winning the war. ~ Malala Yousafzai

Nearly everything that happened had happened before. The grand lesson of history. ~ Brandon Sanderson

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. ~ Aldous Huxley

Americans treat history like a cookbook. Whenever they are uncertain what to do next, they turn to history and look up the proper recipe, invariably designated the lesson of history. ~ Russell Baker

History is God's providence in human affairs. ~ Daniel Webster

Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history. ~ A.J.P. Taylor

The Rangers were founded over one hundred and fifty years ago, in King Herbert's reign. Do you know anything about him?" Halt looked sideways at the boy sitting beside him, tossing the question out quickly to see his response.
Will hesitated. He vaugely remembered the name from history lessons in the Ward, but he couldn't remember any details. Still, he decided he'd try to bluff his way through it...
"Oh ... yes," he said, "King Herbert. We learned about him."
"Really?" said the Ranger expansively. "Perhaps you could tell me a little about him?" He leaned back and crossed his legs, getting himself comfortable...
"He was ..." he hesitated, pretending to gather his thoughts. "The king." That much he was sure of. Halt merely smiled and made a rolling gesture with his hand that meant go on.
"He was the king ... a hundred and fifty years ago," Will said, trying to sound certain of his facts. The Ranger smiled at him, gesturing for him to continue yet again.
"Ummm ... well, I seem to recall that he was the one who founded the Ranger Corps," he said hopefully, and Halt raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.
"Really? You recall that, do you? ~ John Flanagan

History,' Mari muttered, as if she'd overheard his thoughts. 'Why do we need to know what happened before we were born?'
'So hopefully we get smarter and don't make the same mistakes again. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Will this generation be able to turn things around and learn a valuable lesson from all of this? I hope so, but I have my doubts. The damage has been done. And as a lifelong student of history, it's quite evident that human beings don't learn from the mistakes of past generations. ~ Aaron B. Powell

History has taught us that no society built upon the exploitation of any of its individuals can long endure ~ Kirsten Beyer

There's an arrest warrant out for her. Did you even consider taking her to the Commander?"
"No."
"Why not?" Valek didn't try to hide his disbelief. "Killing isn't the only solution to a problem. Or has that been yourformula?"
" My formula! Excuse me, Mr. Assassin, while I laugh as I remember my history lessons on how to deal with a tyrannical monarch by killing him and his family."
Valek flashed me a dangerous look. ~ Maria V. Snyder

Sacrificing a part of yourself so others can go on to fafill there greatness, their destiny. Is greatness in itself but in a much smaller way that won't be written about or put in history books. But it is far more great in many ways. ~ Thomas Brodie Sangster

The only place you are safe from criticism is your mother's womb. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Charleston has something for everyone, rain or shine. Its architecture is unparalleled. Carriage rides are great for seeing the city and hearing the history behind certain houses and the area. ~ Thomas Gibson

I believe the difficulty that lies in growth, is the struggle of letting go of all you know to learn about the unknown. When in all actuality the unknown that you're learning about is yourself. ~ Turcois Ominek

Major General Leonard Wood

Leonard Wood was an army officer and physician, born October 9, 1860 in Winchester, New Hampshire. His first assignment was in 1886 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona where he fought in the last campaign against the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory and was promoted to the rank of Captain, commanding a detachment of the 8th Infantry.

From 1887 to 1898, he served as a medical officer in a number of positions, the last of which was as the personal physician to President William McKinley. In 1898 at the beginning of the war with Spain, he was given command of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry. The regiment was soon to be known as the "Rough Riders." Wood lead his men on the famous charge up San Juan Hill and was given a field promotion to brigadier general.

In 1898 he was appointed the Military Governor of Santiago de Cuba. In 1920, as a retired Major General, Wood ran as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, losing to Warren Harding. In 1921 following his defeat, General Wood accepted the post of Governor General of the Philippines. He held this position from 1921 to 1927, when he died of a brain tumor in Boston, on 7 August 1927, at 66 years of age after which he was buried, with full honors, in Arlington National Cemetery. ~ Hank Bracker

It's a race between your foolishness and your allotted days. Good luck. ~ Mark Slouka

Hungry Jack's real name was Charles R. Hoofard.
He was born in Indianapolis in 1950.
In 1950, Harry S. Truman was president of the United States.
Harry Truman, as far as I can tell, also never took a shit in his life.
In 1950, the same year that a boy named Charles R. Hoofard was born in Indianapolis, President Harry S. Truman sent military assistance to the French. They were trying to maintain their French Catholic colony in Vietnam. That military aid would grow and blossom to the point that a boy with wanderlust from Indiana named Charles R. Hoofard ultimately took time out from fucking whatever he wanted to fuck to participate in the killing of an entire village of women, elderly people, and children.
History is full of shit like that. ~ Andrew Smith

It's all about winning. Stats really don't matter, I mean, guys have great series and all that, and people take notice and take their place in history with those stats and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, it's all about winning and what you can do to help your team get to that point. ~ Stephen Curry

Usually when someone is angry we hear their angry words. Instead, try hearing the unspoken, I am scared, I am frustrated, I am insecure, I am vulnerable, I am threatened. ~ Charles F. Glassman

In India there was a sense of time that does not tick with modern clocks, just as there is a knowledge that is not gained through science and empirical experiments. In the modern West knowledge is of objective, finite particulars in historical time. India recognizes that kind of useful information: it calls it "lower knowledge." Higher knowledge (paravidya) proceeds differently, or rather it doesn't proceed at all but enters history full-blown on the morning of a new creation. ~ Huston Smith

History is guided by leaders in turn affected by the sentiments of their population. Such sentiments are cyclical, allowing for predictions of a nation's fall. ~ Will Slatyer

One of the best moments is right here (during History Tour in Copenhagen, on his birthday in 1997). Right here. It's right in the middle of the show and it's my birthday and I'm thousands of miles away from my family. When they surprised me with the full marching band and then they brought out this huge, beautiful birthday cake.. I realized that I've got family all over the world. Everywhere I go, because my fans really show me the love and I love them just as much. ~ Michael Jackson

But then, of course, there are always unanswered questions. Those questions lead to more questions, with the circularity of the endless inquest, keeping people like me in business. We can and should always poke at the questions of motivation. And we will. There never is a final draft of history. ~ Bob Woodward

Netflix will know everything. Netflix will know when a person stops watching it. They have all of their algorithms and will know that this person watched five minutes of a show and then stopped. They can tell by the behavior and the time of day that they are going to come back to it, based on their history. ~ Mitchell Hurwitz

Lithuanian nation must be saved, as it is the key to all the riddles - not only philology, but also in history - to solve the puzzle. ~ Immanuel Kant

My main life lesson from investing: self-interest is the most powerful force on earth, and can get people to embrace and defend almost anything. ~ Jesse Lauriston Livermore

There is a confusing dual structure in the relationship of the individual to history. Even the sensory certainties of suffering follow a predictable order of physical reactions, so that the undeniable reality of their dizziness, queasiness, or nausea can be regarded with equal plausibility as the hysterical symptoms of a transitional period - a hypochondria of the epoch and not of individual people. ~ Andreas Bernard

There's a lesson to be learned out of everything we go through in life. ~ LaToya Jackson

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. ~ Gustave Flaubert

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner. ~ Elbert Hubbard

LOST is often lauded as one of the best fantasy dramas in television history, as well as one of the most cryptic and - occasionally – maddening. But confirmation of just how important it is came with an almost unbelievable communiqué from the White House last week. President Obama's office reassured Lost fans that the commander in chief wouldn't move his yearly state of the union address from late January to a date that would coincide with the premiere episode of the show's sixth and final season.
That's right. Obama might have had vital information to impart upon the American people about health care, the war in Afghanistan, the financial crisis – things that, you know, might affect real lives.
But the most important thing was that his address didn't clash with a series in which a polar bear appears on a tropical island.
After extensive lobbying by the ABC network, the White House surrendered. Obama's press secretary promised: "I don't foresee a scenario in which millions of people who hope to finally get some conclusion with Lost are pre-empted by the president. ~ Ben East

The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the expansion of women's rights or, now, gay rights, I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties. ~ James McGreevey

Forging fake smiles to hide painful truths doesn't take away the hurt, but sometimes safeguards our emotions from those adamant not to understand. ~ Aisha Mirza

Innocence isn't something we lose, but realise we don't need. ~ Chloe Thurlow

Melancholy

(1) An excess of black bile, anatomized by Robert Burton, embraced by the swooning Romantics as evidence of their fine sensibilities, now fallen into disrepair, renamed as depression, wrongly attributed to a deficiency of serotonin and cured by infantilizing, self-indulgent 'therapy' and overpriced, addictive drugs pushed on harassed, gullible doctors by unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies which suppress their terrible side-effects in order to pursue their profits.

(2) A crippling disease of unknown aetiology which throughout human history has devoured hope, destroyed lives and, after a period of living death, sometimes relaxed its grip just long enough for the sufferer to summon the energy for a merciful suicide; now, at last, frequently curable by a combination of therapy and antidepressants. ~ Michael Bywater

Taboos, magic, superstition, personified abstraction, myths, gods, empty verbalisms, in every culture and at every period of history express man's persisting non-logical impulses. Gods and goddesses like Athena or Janus or Ammon are replaced by new divinities such as Progress and Humanity and even Science; hymns to Jupiter give way to invocations to the People; the magic of the votes and electoral manipulations supersedes the magic of dolls and wands; faith in the Historical Process does duty for faith in the God of our Fathers. ~ James Burnham

Rumour has it that the gardens of natural history museums are used for surreptitious burial of those intermediate forms between species which might disturb the orderly classifications of the taxonomist. ~ David Lack

Any history buffs, people who like religion, suspense and mystery mixed with history, or anyone who likes 'The Da Vinci Code,' needs to read Ken Follett. ~ Bonnie Somerville

Learn to appreciate every moment of your life, stop thinking of the future too much, you have a choice to make a difference in your life at any time you wish. ~ Auliq Ice

I have only to glance over my shoulder for all those years to drop away and I see it behind me again, the ravine, rising all green and black through the saplings, a picture that will never leave me. ~ Donna Tartt

Unlike most people, Peter didn't look to the future for reassurance; he understood that the only thing certain in life is the past. History repeats itself again and again, and every story has been told before. It seemed to him that life could be terribly unoriginal in that way, and the only manner of certainty
the only way to know what might be ahead
was to look back on what had already happened. ~ Jennifer E. Smith

Thanks to this availability of suitable wild mammals and plants, early peoples of the Fertile Crescent could quickly assemble a potent and balanced biological package for intensive food production. That package comprised three cereals, as the main carbohydrate sources; four pulses, with 20 - 25 percent protein, and four domestic animals, as the main protein sources, supplemented by the generous protein content of wheat; and flax as a source of fiber and oil (termed linseed oil: flax seeds are about 40 percent oil). Eventually, thousands of years after the beginnings of animal domestication and food production, the animals also began to be used for milk, wool, plowing, and transport. Thus, the crops and animals of the Fertile Crescent's first farmers came to meet humanity's basic economic needs: carbohydrate, protein, fat, clothing, traction, and transport. ~ Jared Diamond

Grand visions, even those as prescient as Washington's, must nevertheless negotiate the damnable particularities that history in the short run tosses up before history in the long run arrives to validate the vision. ~ Joseph J. Ellis

every time this happens
I see my father
my brother
my would be son
I see myself
stop killing us ~ R H Sin

I try to keep this in mind when tied in to a rope 75 feet up in a tree ... The history of ideas about our place in the universe has been a long series of let-downs for those who like to believe we are special. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

'Britain's Royal Families' became my first published book, in 1989, from The Bodley Head, and the rest of the story is - dare I say it? - history! ~ Alison Weir

Your day and life is not determined by when you went to sleep or when you got up or what you missed in these eight hours. It is determined by what you do in the sixteen hours when you are not sleeping. ~ Rahul Shrivastava

Nature utters her voice in lessons of heavenly wisdom and eternal truth. ~ Ellen G. White

There's always a way," his sister lectured. "We'll need help, though."
"What help?"
Amy grinned. "Sometimes it doesn't hurt to be a part of the most powerful family in human history. ~ Gordon Korman

It was called the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. If not for the monks, everything the world had ever learned would have been lost. Well, we live in a similar time, when we're losing the vast majority of what we do and see and learn. But it doesn't have to be that way. ~ Dave Eggers

We can't make death fun, but we can make learning about it fun. Death is science and history, art and literature. It bridges every culture and unites the whole of humanity! ~ Caitlin Doughty

It made me realise just how desperate the world is for a superhero. I don't just mean those of the comic books. For there is an inexhaustible supply of would-be superheroes throughout history and across the globe. From the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood, to the Gods of a thousand religions. From Santa Claus to Peter Pan to a myriad other folklore characters. Monsters from the Lochs. Spirits from the other side. Aliens from distant planets. The world longs for something ... something else. Something powerful and exciting. A little bit of magic. ~ Paul J. Newell