The brave soldiers die. The cowards survive and write the history.

He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn.

History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the...

The American flag doesn’t give her glory on a peaceful, calm day. It’s when the winds pick up and become boisterous, do we see her strength. When she unfolds her hand, and shows her frayed...

History is the guess of old men, sometimes they get it wrong.

History is what we write, not what we remember. Why should we tarnish the memory of our planet by enshrining our less then noble deeds?

The death knell for any enterprise is to glorify the past — no matter how good it was.

For the first time in history we can track the evolution of a pandemic in real time. Influenza viruses are notorious for their rapid mutation and unpredictable behavior.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

There is no better teacher than history in determining the future… There are answers worth billions of dollars in 30$ history book.

History does not usually make real sense until long afterward.

The Noblest form of Affection

I believe the momentum that is now building up will give us a chance to change the course of history and head off a pandemic caused by the H5N1 virus.

The biggest enemy of truth is known as facts in our society.

The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster.

Here we introduce the nation’s first great communications monopolist, whose reign provides history’s first lesson in the power and peril of concentrated control over the flow of information. Western Union’s man was one Rutherford B....

A lie near to truth is always difficult to catch.

That was the nature of history, of course: notional, partial, unknowable, a record made by the victors.

Too much faith is the worst ally. When you believe in something literally, through your faith you’ll turn it into something absurd. One who is a genuine adherent, if you like, of some political outlook,...

An old adage warns: If you don’t know your history, you will be forever condemned to repeat it. Likewise, if you don’t know your science fiction, and heed its warnings, you could condemn the Earth...

Many before have hailed the end of history; none have ever been right.

All civilizations we know about have left a record of their history in material things. We know them through tablets or ruins dug up by archaeologists. But we know of the Jews in ancient times...

Here the past was everywhere, an entire continent sown with memories.

The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn’t absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity;...

As far back as history records people thinking, thinking peoplehave been befuddled by the mysteries of life and existence.

History is contemporary. Your understanding of history confirms what you think of the present. It’s not neutral. I would be very surprised if people with a different view of the present, don’t take issue with...

Revolutions are the locomotives of history.

History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

As a pauper, the obvious destination for James Tilly Matthews was the Bethlem Hospital, already long known in popular slang as Bedlam. The principal public asylum in London, it had accepted dangerous and insane paupers...

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

By the Middles Ages it was a sin to have sex with a child. If an adult were guilty of such a sin, one remedy was to declare the child a witch. The child thus...

In the Christian tradition, there is a very decisive problem in distinguishing between the senses of the terms “Jesus” and “Christ.” “Jesus” refers to a historical character; “Christ” refers to an eternal principle, the Son...

No man is a caricature, no individual can alone bear responibilty for a nation’s collapse. The disaster Zaire became, the dull acquiescence of its people, had its roots in a history of extraordinary outside interference,...

Calling sex by its name thereafter [the 17th c.] became more difficult and more costly. As if in order to gain mastery of it in reality, it had first been necessary to subjugate it at...

We naturally try to forget our personal tragedies, serious or trifling, as soon as possible (even something as petty as being scorned or disdained by a stranger on a street corner). We try not to...

When history looks back, it’ll see the cruise industry as the rebirth of this port.

This is one of those times when history looks upon us to see where we are,

Stand still while I yell at you.

(regarding Charles Lee) This eccentric and notably slovenly man was always trailed by his beloved dogs. “When I can be convinced that men are as worthy objects as dogs”, he once explained, “I shall transfer...

It is not history. But I am beginning to wonder strongly what is the nature of history. Is it only memory in decent sentences, and if so, how reliable is it? I would suggest, not...

It has been argued that close attention to the history of science is indispensable for doing good philosophy of science.

Both history and practices of ‘the myth of empires’ have demonstrated that the pre-emptive strategy will bring the Bush administration an outcome that it is most unwilling to see, that is, absolute insecurity of the...

The only philosophy that can be practiced responsibly in the face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption. Knowledge has no light but...

We, as we read, must become Greeks, Romans, Turks, priest and king, martyr and executioner; must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience, or we shall learn nothing rightly.

I began with the desire to speak with the dead.

Of one thing I am certain: No single people, tradition, religion, governmental form, ethical program, moral code, or civilization has had sufficient wisdom and goodness to set the pattern and govern he world in the...

Never question the power of one! Throughout history it has been the actions of only one person who has in inspired the movement of change.

The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask tobe imagined before they are condemned. Or even simplified.

Any big hotels have got scandals,” he said. “Just like every big hotel has got a ghost. Why? Hell, people come and go. Sometimes one of em will pop off in his room, heart attack...

Let that be a reminder to you that the past is one thing, but what we make of it, the conclusions we draw, is another. History can be many things, depending on how we read...