Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A collection of top history quotes that sift the lessons of our past actions.

Home»
Topics»
History Quotes

Top History Quotes To Inspire You

History is often said to be the greatest teacher for mankind because it is a study of the past. Each valuable tale from the past tell us a story. It not only provided the anchor for the right and wrong, but it allows us to understand the past. With this information at our fingertips, we can understand the present. Many leaders and great thinker often turn back to see what their predecessors have done and proceed to act in the same way. Its importance in modern society is self-evident. Moreover, history plays a vital role in building communities and civilizations. We can learn and discern more about our fellow being by following the footsteps of history. You can scroll through various sayings and quotations on the importance of history below. We have compiled these quotes from diverse sources, including philosophers, celebrities, global leaders, and religious figures.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.
Bil Keane

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.
James Baldwin

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.
Paulo Coelho

If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.

If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.
Michael Crichton

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
George Orwell

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Mark Twain

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.
James Fenimore Cooper

One side of me is very busy paying attention to the details of life, the humanity of people, catching the street voices, the middle-class, upper-middle-class secret lives of Turks. The other side is interested in history and class and gender, trying to get all of society in a very realistic way.
Orhan Pamuk

I wanted to tell a romantic and dark side of Ottoman history that was also slightly political, saying to the previous generation of writers, 'Look, I'm interested in Ottoman things, and I'm not afraid of it, and I'm doing something creative.'
Orhan Pamuk

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
Oscar Wilde

Good fiction is about asserting the beauties of the world, inventing a new, positive thing. Where am I going to get that? And it should be original; it should not be cliched. So the way I looked at history was not to accuse it of failure.
Orhan Pamuk

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.
Steven Spielberg

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
Hermann Hesse

Jazz in itself is not struggling. That is, the music itself is not struggling... It's the attitude that's in trouble. My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history.

Jazz in itself is not struggling. That is, the music itself is not struggling... It's the attitude that's in trouble. My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history.
August Wilson

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. Auden

I love history, so I do a lot of movies about history.

I love history, so I do a lot of movies about history.
Steven Spielberg

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

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
Aldous Huxley

Social media has taken over in America to such an extreme that to get my own kids to look back a week in their history is a miracle, let alone 100 years.

Social media has taken over in America to such an extreme that to get my own kids to look back a week in their history is a miracle, let alone 100 years.
Steven Spielberg

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?
W. H. Auden

President Kennedy has named two Negroes to District Judgeships and appointed Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals. When I came to the Department of Justice, there were only ten Negroes employed as lawyers; not a single Negro served as a United States Attorney - or ever had in the history of the country. That has been changed.
Robert F. Kennedy

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.
Virginia Woolf

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
James Joyce

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
Edmund Burke

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
Robert F. Kennedy

There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past which, in fact, never existed.

There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past which, in fact, never existed.
Robert F. Kennedy

Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.
Madeleine Albright

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.

Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.
Angela Carter

The travail of freedom and justice is not easy, but nothing serious and important in life is easy. The history of humanity has been a continuing struggle against temptation and tyranny - and very little worthwhile has ever been achieved without pain.
Robert F. Kennedy

The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes

The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes
Adolf Hitler