Historian

Explore 186 quotes by Historians

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

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Topic

Girl power

Author

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Source

Vertuous Women Found American Quarterly

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Thatcher Ulrich, Laurel. "Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735." American Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 1.

It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.

Thomas Fuller (churchman)

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Topic

Things get better Hard times

Author

Thomas Fuller (churchman)

Source

A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1650 1650s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Fuller, Thomas. A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the confines thereof with the history of the Old and New Testament acted thereon. London: John Williams, 1650.

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

Plutarch

Moralia

More information about this quote

Topic

The mind Education Learning

Author

Plutarch

Source

Of Listening Moralia

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

2nd century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plutarch. "Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν [On Hearing]." Ἠθικά Ethika [Moralia]. c. 100 AD.

Current Citation

Plutarch. "On Listening." Essays. Penguin Classics, 1993.

You know as well as we do that right, as the word goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

Thucydides

History of the Peloponnesian War

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Topic

Justice Power relations Political theory

Author

Thucydides

Source

History of the Peloponnesian War

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

404 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. c. 431 BC, bk. 5.

Current Citation

Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 5.

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

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Topic

Political division Nature of politics Political theory Politics

Author

Henry Adams

Source

The Education of Henry Adams

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. 1907, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Adams, Henry. "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams: Democracy, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, edited by Ernest Samuels and Jayne Samuels. Library of America, 1983, ch. 1.

Religious insanity is very common in the United States.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Topic

Religion in America America

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

Democracy in America

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, sect. 2, ch. 12.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, sect. 2, ch. 12.

Carthage must be destroyed.

Cato the Elder

Quoted in Plutarch's Lives, by Plutarch

Cato ended several of his speeches with this phrase after his visit to Carthage in 152 BC.

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Topic

War

Speaker

Cato the Elder

Author

Plutarch

Source

Plutarch's Lives

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Statement Type

Declaration

Language

Latin

Time

149 BC 140s BC 2nd century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cato the Elder. Speech within the Roman Senate prior to the Third Punic War. c. 149 BC, Rome, Italy.

If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight.

Herodotus

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Topic

Battle of Thermopylae Courage War

Speaker

Dieneces of Sparta

Author

Herodotus

Source

Histories

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Herodotus. Ἱστορίαι [Histories]. c. 430 BC, bk. 7, sect. 226.

Current Citation

Herodotus. The Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 7, sect. 226.

Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Topic

Downsides of democracy Democracy

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

Democracy in America

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, sect. 2, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, sect. 2, ch. 2.

The love of wealth is therefore to be traced, as either a principal or accessory motive, at the bottom of all that the Americans do; this gives to all their passions a sort of family likeness.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Topic

Love of money American character America

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

Democracy in America

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, bk. 3. ch. 17.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, bk. 3. ch. 17.

Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is a task of the utmost difficulty.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

More information about this quote

Topic

Facts

Author

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Source

History Edinburgh Review

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. "History." Edinburgh Review, May 1828.

The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

Herbert Agar

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth hurts Truth Willful ignorance Freedom

Author

Herbert Agar

Source

A Time for Greatness

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Agar, Herbert. A Time for Greatness. Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.

Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

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Topic

Great man theory of history Political theory Politics

Author

Henry Adams

Source

The Education of Henry Adams

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. 1907, ch. 28.

Current Citation

Adams, Henry. "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams: Democracy, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, edited by Ernest Samuels and Jayne Samuels. Library of America, 1983, ch. 28.

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination grows and dilates beyond all measure.... Democracy, which shuts the past against the poet, opens the future before him.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Topic

Democracy

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

Democracy in America

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, sect. 1, ch. 17.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, sect. 1, ch. 17.

All the steam in the world could not, like the Virgin, build Chartres.

Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

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Topic

Technological progress Downsides of progress Disenchanted world

Author

Henry Adams

Source

The Education of Henry Adams

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. 1907, ch. 25.

Current Citation

Adams, Henry. "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams: Democracy, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, edited by Ernest Samuels and Jayne Samuels. Library of America, 1983, ch. 25.

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.

The lyricism of marginality may find inspiration in the image of the "outlaw," the great social nomad, who prowls on the confines of a docile, frightened order.

Michel Foucault

Discipline and Punish

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Topic

Outsiders and outcasts

Author

Michel Foucault

Source

Discipline and Punish

Language

French

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foucault, Michel. Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison [Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison]. Gallimard, 1975.

This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

Vine Deloria, Jr.

Read this article at the New York Times website

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Topic

US and Native American relations America

Speaker

Vine Deloria, Jr.

Source

The New York Times Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Deloria, Vine, Jr. "This Country Was a Lot Better Off When the Indians Were Running It." The New York Times, 8 Mar. 1970.

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

C. Northcote Parkinson

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Topic

Delay

Author

C. Northcote Parkinson

Source

The Law of Delay

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parkinson, C. Northcote. The Law of Delay: Interviews and Outerviews. John Murray, 1970, ch. 13.