Happy is the nation without a history.
See Montesquieu {618579} for a slightly earlier version.
In following their line through, and those of Plantagenet and Tudor, there is but little to soothe the mind.
Ledger art represents a spirit which has lasted through the hardships and turmoil. It is my goal and ambition that this style of pictograph art continues to pay tribute to the perseverance of my ancestors who adapted and created works of art during a period of life changing turmoil and injustice.
Of all the writers I have read, Vladimir Nabokov has made the biggest impression on me because he, despite living through the 1917 February Revolution, forced exile amidst the anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, the two World Wars and quite a lot of controversy, was an author who never gave up.
Looking back at the worst times [in history], it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in the matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agreed with them.
The history of mankind for the last four centuries is rather like that of an imprisoned sleeper, stirring clumsily and uneasily while the prison that restrains and shelters him catches fire, not waking but incorporating the crackling and warmth of the fire with ancient and incongruous dreams, than like that of a man consciously awake to danger and opportunity.
Famine, plague, death and war... that's a pretty good description of 1917-18. The war was meant to end quickly, but by 1917 it seemed to be set until the end of time. No wonder everyone dreamed of an apocalyptic intervention.
This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.
It seems to be sometimes that there is a curse on Jerusalem – I so seldom meet anyone who is happy here. There is a tense atmosphere, not only over religions but as if the turmoils of centuries are still alive. Perhaps these thoughts stem from my own sadness yet I suspect Jerusalem must remain, for ever, a place of conflict.
Things have been a mess for so many years that trying to pin down a starting point is like trying to figure out where your skin starts.