Historical literature

Explore 186 quotes from the following genre: Historical literature

From this point onwards history becomes an organic whole: the affairs of Italy and Africa are connected with those of Asia and of Greece, and all events bear a relationship and contribute to a single end.

Polybius

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Topic

Globalization Interconnectedness of all people

Author

Polybius

Source

Histories (Polybius)

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

117 BC 110s BC 2nd century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Polybius. Ἱστορίαι [Histories]. c. 110 BC, bk. 1.

Current Citation

Polybius. The Histories, translated by W. R. Paton. Vol. 1, Harvard University Press, 2010, bk. 1.

No man who is correctly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

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Topic

Past and present The past The present

Author

Thomas Macaulay

Source

The History of England

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Macaulay, Thomas. The History of England: From the Accession of James II. Vol. 1, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1848.

Current Citation

Macaulay, Thomas. The History of England from the Accession of James II, 5 Volume Set. The Folio Society, 2009.

The French Revolution operated in reference to this world in exactly the same manner as religious revolutions acted in view of the other world. It considered the citizen as an abstract proposition apart from any particular society, in the same way as religions considered man as man, independent of country and time.

Alexis de Tocqueville

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

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Topic

French Revolution

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution [The Ancien Régime and the Revolution]. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856, pt. 1, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. The Ancien Regime and the Revolution, translated by Gerald Bevan. Penguin Classics, 2008, pt. 1, ch. 3.

Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition... The housewife wears herself out marking time: she makes nothing, simply perpetuates the present.

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex

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Topic

Housework and homemaking

Author

Simone de Beauvoir

Source

The Second Sex

Genre

Historical literature Philosophical 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.

The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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Topic

Religious tolerance Religion Roman empire

Author

Edward Gibbon

Source

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1, London: Strahan & Cadell, 1776, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volumes 1-6. Vol. 1. Everyman's Library, 2010, ch. 2.

Anacharsis laughed at Solon for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich.

Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives

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Topic

Nature of law Law Rich vs. poor

Author

Plutarch

Source

Plutarch's Lives

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

119 110s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Anacharsis. Quoted in "Solon." Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. c. 120.

Current Citation

Anacharsis. Quoted in "Solon." Greek Lives, written by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Gift, like genius, I often think, only means an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Ellice Hopkins

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Topic

Persistence

Author

Ellice Hopkins

Source

Work Amongst Working Men

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1879 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hopkins, Jane Ellice. Work Amongst Working Men. Strahan and Company, 1879, ch. 4.

A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe.

Le Corbusier

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Topic

New York City

Author

Le Corbusier

Source

When the Cathedrals Were White

Genre

Historical literature

Language

French

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Corbusier, Le. Quand Les Cathedrales Etaient Blanches [When the Cathedrals Were White]. Librairie Plon, 1937.

Current Citation

Corbusier, Le. When the Cathedrals Were White. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964.

Every piece of business strategy... Must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Business strategy 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.

There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations in opposition to their inclination and interest.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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Topic

Anti-imperialism Imperialism

Author

Edward Gibbon

Source

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1781 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 3, London: Strahan & Cadell, 1781, ch. 49.

Current Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volumes 1-6. Vol. 3. Everyman's Library, 2010, ch. 49.

All our power lies in both mind and body; we employ the mind to rule, the body rather to serve; the one we have in common with the Gods, the other with the brutes.

Sallust

The War of Catiline

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Topic

Mind and body God and man Man and animals

Author

Sallust

Source

The War of Catiline

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

42 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sallust. Bellum Catilinae [War of Catiline]. c. 43–40 BC.

Current Citation

Sallust. "The War with Catiline." The War with Catiline and The War with Jugurtha, translated by John T. Ramsey J. C. Rolfe. Harvard University Press, 2013.

Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Bureaucracy Democracy Political theory

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. 3, ch. 18.

No matter how long you have been here, you are a New Yorker the first time you say, That used to be Munsey's, or That used to be the Tic Toc Lounge... You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.

Colson Whitehead

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Topic

New York City

Author

Colson Whitehead

Source

The Colossus of New York

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Colson. The Colossus of New York. Doubleday, 2003, pt. 1.

As your ambassador can see for himself we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures.

Qianlong Emperor

Writing to George III after the first British trade mission had reached Beijing.

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Topic

China Xenophobia

Author

Qianlong Emperor

Medium

Letter

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Chinese

Time

1793 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Qianlong. Letter to George III. 1783.

O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!... Thou hast drawn together all the farstretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet (here lies).

Sir Walter Raleigh

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Topic

Death as equalizer Death

Author

Sir Walter Raleigh

Source

The History of the World

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1614 1610s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Raleigh, Walter. The Historie of the VVorld / In Five Bookes. London: Ben Jonson, 1614, bk. 5, ch. 6.

Every intellectual product must be judged from the point of view of the age and the people in which it was produced.

Walter Pater

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Topic

Judging the past Intellectual history

Author

Walter Pater

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1873 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Pater, Walter. "Pico Della Mirandola." Studies in the History of the Renaissance. London: Macmillan and Co., 1873.

Current Citation

Pater, Walter. "Pico Della Mirandola." Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

H.G. Wells

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Topic

Education Human destructiveness

Author

H.G. Wells

Source

The Outline of History

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wells, H. G. The Outline of History. George Newnes, 1920.

The frontier is the outer edge of the wave-the meeting-point between savagery and civilization... And line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist.

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.

Where torture has been long applied we find that it is developed to grades of incredible horror.

William Graham Sumner

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Topic

Torture

Author

William Graham Sumner

Source

Folkways

Genre

Sociology Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sumner, William Graham. Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals. Ginn & Company, 1906, ch. 5.

We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the priniples and traditions of this nation. We made our decisions in the light of those values. Yet we were wrong, terribbly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.

Robert McNamara

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Topic

Vietnam War

Author

Robert McNamara

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McNamara, Robert. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Random House, 1995, preface.