Historical literature

Explore 186 quotes from the following genre: Historical literature

Freedom is always freedom for the one who thinks differently.

Rosa Luxemburg

The Russian Revolution

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Topic

Minority rights Freedom

Author

Rosa Luxemburg

Source

The Russian Revolution

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

German

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Luxemburg, Rosa. "The Russian Revolution." The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism? Trans. Bertram Wolfe. University of Michigan Press, 1961, ch. 6. Originally, Die russische Revolution [The Russian Revolution]. Paul Levi, 1922, ch. 6.

Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

On the counterfactual possibility of an Arab victory against the French army at Poitiers in 732 AD.

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Topic

Counterfactual history Inflection points Christianity and Islam

Author

Edward Gibbon

Source

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1789 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 6, London: Strahan & Cadell, 1789, ch. 52.

Current Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volumes 1-6. Vol. 6. Everyman's Library, 2010, ch. 52.

Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.

Barbara W. Tuchman

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45

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Topic

Revolution

Author

Barbara W. Tuchman

Source

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tuchman, Barbara W. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45. Macmillan, 1972, ch. 8.

It was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us—the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

Hannah Arendt

On the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the organizers of the Holocaust.

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Topic

Nature of evil Evil The Holocaust

Author

Hannah Arendt

Source

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil The New Yorker

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arendt, Hanna. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Viking Press, 1963. Originally published by The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 1963.

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Capitalism

Author

Joseph Schumpeter

Source

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

Genre

Economic literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper & Brothers, 1942, pt. 2, ch. 7.

It is Toussaint's supreme merit that while he saw European civilisation as a valuable and necessary thing, and strove to lay its foundations among his people, he never had the illusion that it conferred any moral superiority. He knew French, British, and Spanish imperialists for the insatiable gangsters that they were, that there is no oath too sacred for them to break, no crime, deception, treachery, cruelty, destruction of human life and property which they would not commit against those who could not defend themselves.

C.L.R. James

The Black Jacobins

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Topic

European imperialism

Author

C.L.R. James

Source

The Black Jacobins

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Secker & Warburg, 1938, ch. 12.

What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.

Frederick Jackson Turner

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

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Topic

American frontier

Author

Frederick Jackson Turner

Source

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

Medium

Essay

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." American Historical Association meeting. 1893, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL, USA.

A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion... A race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world.

Samuel Eliot Morison

On Americans, specifically "Yankees".

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Topic

American character Americans

Author

Samuel Eliot Morison

Source

Maritime History of Massachusetts

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783-1860. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1921, ch. 2.

I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

Caesar Augustus

Quoted in Lives of the Caesars, by Suetonius

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Topic

Rome

Speaker

Caesar Augustus

Author

Suetonius

Source

Lives of the Caesars

Medium

Biography

Genre

Historical literature

Statement Type

Boast

Language

Latin

Time

121 120s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Augustus, Caesar. Quoted in De vita Caesarum [About the Life of the Caesars], written by Suetonius. c. 121.

Current Citation

Augustus, Caesar. Quoted in The Lives of the Caesars, written by Suetonius, translated by Catharine Edwards. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

Aristotle

Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius

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Topic

Consequences of lying Liars Lying

Speaker

Aristotle

Author

Diogenes Laërtius

Source

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

400 400s 3rd century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laertius. c. 240 AD, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 17.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 17.

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex

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Topic

Women's equality Men and women

Author

Simone de Beauvoir

Source

The Second Sex

Genre

Historical literature Feminist literature

Language

French

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième Sexe [The Second Sex]. Vol. 2, Gallimard, 1949.

Current Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Vintage, 2011.

Gaul as a whole is divided into three parts.

Julius Caesar

The Gallic Wars

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Topic

France

Author

Julius Caesar

Source

The Gallic Wars

Genre

Historical literature Autobiography and memoir

Language

Latin

Time

49 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Caesar, Julius. Commentarii de Bello Gallico [Commentaries on the Gallic War]. c. 58, bk. 1.

Current Citation

Caesar, Julius. The Gallic War, translated by Carolyn Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1.

Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish.

Julius Caesar

The Gallic Wars

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Topic

Credulity Human nature

Author

Julius Caesar

Source

The Gallic Wars

Genre

Historical literature Autobiography and memoir

Language

Latin

Time

49 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Caesar, Julius. Commentarii de Bello Gallico [Commentaries on the Gallic War]. c. 49 BC, bk. 3.

Current Citation

Caesar, Julius. The Gallic War, translated by Carolyn Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 3.

I wish you to know you have been the last dream of my soul.

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

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Topic

Infatuation

Speaker

Sydney Carton

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

A Tale of Two Cities

Medium

Novel

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "A Tale of Two Cities." London: Chapman & Hall. April-Nov. 1859. Weekly serial.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities, edited by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, bk. 2, ch. 13.

Learning is an ornament in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity.

Aristotle

Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius

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Topic

Value of education Education Learning

Speaker

Aristotle

Author

Diogenes Laërtius

Source

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Genre

Biography Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

3rd century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laertius. c. 240 AD, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 19.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 19.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

Aristotle

Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius

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Topic

Golden rule Friends

Speaker

Aristotle

Author

Diogenes Laërtius

Source

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

400 400s 3rd century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laertius. c. 240 AD, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 21.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk. 5, ch. 1, sect. 21.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

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Topic

Existential solitude

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

A Tale of Two Cities

Medium

Novel

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "A Tale of Two Cities." London: Chapman & Hall. April-Nov. 1859. Weekly serial.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities, edited by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, bk. 1, ch. 3.

To tell the truth, one is not born a genius: one becomes a genius.

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex

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Topic

Womanhood Women

Author

Simone de Beauvoir

Source

The Second Sex

Genre

Historical literature Feminist literature

Language

French

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième Sexe [The Second Sex]. Vol. 1, Gallimard, 1949.

Current Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Vintage, 2011.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

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Topic

Death Afterlife

Speaker

Sydney Carton

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

A Tale of Two Cities

Medium

Novel

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "A Tale of Two Cities." London: Chapman & Hall. April-Nov. 1859. Weekly serial.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities, edited by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, bk. 3, ch. 15.

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Napoleon Bonaparte

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Topic

The sublime

Author

Napoleon Bonaparte

Genre

Historical literature

Language

French

Time

1812 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bonaparte, Napoleon. Quoted in Histoire de I'Ambassade dans le grand-duche de Varsovie en 1812 [History of the Embassy in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1812], written by M. de Pradt. Paris: Pilet, 1815.