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It is impossible to write ancient history because we do not have enough sources, and impossible to write modern history because we have far too many.

— Charles Péguy Clio (1931)

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More quotes by Charles Péguy

The faith that I love the best, says God, is hope.

The Portal of the Mystery of Hope (1912)

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)

There will be things that I do that no one will be left to understand.

Le Mystère des saints Innocents [The Mystery of the Holy Innocents (1912)

Tyranny is always better organised than freedom.

Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)

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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: Charles Péguy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.