History Lessons Quotes

The question of whether world peace will ever be possible can only be answered by someone familiar with world history. To be familiar with world history means, however, to know human beings as they have been and always will be. There is a vast difference, which most people will never comprehend, between viewing future history as it will be and viewing it as one might like it to be. Peace is a desire, war is a fact; and history has never paid heed to human desires and ideals.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.

What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

There's a lot we should be able to learn from history. And yet history proves that we never do. In fact, the main lesson of history is that we never learn the lessons of history. This makes us look so stupid that few people care to read it. They'd rather not be reminded. Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates. It's very embarrassing.

One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.

There's almost no problem that can't be solved. That's important as a premise. History has proven it over and over again.

Time and time again, history has proved that the conservatives are right and the liberals are wrong.

History is a vast early warning system.

History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.

I wanted to be what my high-school civics and history teacher thought of as a good American. That automatically involved taking an interest in government.

I read a lot of history. The passive Jews in Germany didn't survive. The smart ones got out.

Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I knew people who can't even learn from what happened this morning. Hegel must have been taking the long view.

History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.

History is nothing if not an epic tale of missed opportunities.

History shows that there are no invincible armies.

History should teach humility and prudence, but America doesn’t seem to learn. I’ve never seen a virgin who loses her innocence more often.

If there's one thing that a study of history has taught us, it is that things can always get worse.

All history, and most especially the history of the 20th century, argues against placing ideas in the saddle and allowing them to ride mankind. Too often, they end up riding individual men and women into mass graves.

I would say history is a clear witness to many of the problems that have erupted when two partners from the same industry or same country have come together.

I can't change history but only learn from it.

Progress is man’s indifference to the lessons of history.

You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.