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Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts — between individuals in economic life, between groups in politics, between creeds in religion, between states in war.

— Will Durant The Gentle Philosopher (2006)

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History

More quotes by Will Durant

It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment.

The Gentle Philosopher (2006)

Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.

The Story of Civilization (1935)

Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.

The Story of Civilization (1935)

I felt more keenly than before the need of a philosophy that would do justice to the infinite vitality of nature.

Transition (1927)

There is nothing in Greek civilization that does not illuminate our own.

The Story of Civilization (1935)

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