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It is always necessary to call men back to history, which is the first master in politics, or more exactly the only master.

— Joseph de Maistre Against Rousseau (1795)

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History

More quotes by Joseph de Maistre

The arts, in general, need a king; they only flourish under the influence of sceptres.

Against Rousseau (1795)

Religious beauty is superior to ideal beauty, since it is the ideal of the ideal.

An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)

Every nation gets the government it deserves.

A woman can only be superior as a woman; as soon as she wants to emulate man, she is nothing but an ape.

I am a perfect stranger to France, which I have never seen, and I expect nothing from her king, whom I shall never know.

Considerations on France (1796)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

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

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph de Maistre (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.