Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [181-200] of 271 History quotesHistory QuotesHistory Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes However, is it not prudent, since no one has gone into the future, to pay attention to our elders?~ Thomas Martin There is no such thing as the last word in history. There is always scope for debate in the reading of history which is never static.~ Tony Martin In my profession, it is not enough to know your history, speak a language and be widely traveled. Equally important is how to weigh and organize evidence. How to listen. How to see a situation from the other person's point of view. How to deal with complexity and realize that few issues in the world come with just one side. How to learn, not what to think.~ John E. McLaughlin [T]he only thing wrong with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was that it was the South, not the North, that was fighting for a government of the people, by the people and for the people.~ H. L. Mencken The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination -- that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.~ H. L. Mencken No article of faith is proof against the disintegrating effects of increasing information; one might almost describe the acquirement of knowledge as a process of disillusion.~ H. L. Mencken The ideal type of the Communist is a man in whom all individual, emotional, and unconscious elements have been reduced to a minimum and subjected to the control of an iron will, informed by a supple intellect. That intellect is totally at the service of a single and compelling idea, made incarnate in the Communist Party: the concept of History as an inexorable god whose ways are revealed ‘scientifically’ through the doctrine and method of Marxism-Leninism.~ Frank Straus Meyer The historian’s first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.~ Jules Michelet The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.~ John Stuart Mill If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile.~ Samuel Eliot Morison When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.~ Reverend Martin Niemoeller In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.~ Reverend Martin Niemoeller The reason this country continues its drift toward socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country. A better educated electorate might change the reason many persons vote. If children were forced to learn about the Constitution, about how government works, about how this nation came into being, about taxes and about how government forever threatens the cause of liberty perhaps we wouldn't see so many foolish ideas coming out of the mouths of silly old men.~ Lyn Nofziger We are human and our lot is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.~ Novalis Every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered...History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.~ George Orwell Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.~ George Orwell Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.~ Ovid It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behavior, career, and sexual orientation.~ Camille Paglia Age after age has passed away, for no other purpose than to behold their wretchedness.~ Thomas Paine Time makes more converts than reason.~ Thomas Paine Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print