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History Quotes

Carlyle leads by count, with Yuval Noah Harari, Will Durant and Isaac Asimov close behind. The sourced picks include Karl Popper’s claim in The Open Society (1945) that there is no history of mankind, only many histories of aspects of human life, and Oscar Wilde’s line from 1891 that anybody can make history but only a great man can write it.

The Churchill line “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it” is flagged as misattributed. What the notes give is his House of Commons speech of 23 January 1948, in which he proposed to leave the past to history, especially as he intended to write that history. A line on Anglo-Irish history credited to Shaw is flagged too, and the notes record the more common, punchier version of it.

Random quote on History

Most quoted on history:

We must have the courage to write, preserve, and teach our own history so that our truth does not vanish.

Jeannette Kagame

In Ukraine, there live people who are absolutely fraternal in spirit, blood and common history, a war with whom would be the worst crime you could think of.

Vladimir Solovyov Said on Russian TV (2008)

It means requiring all students to study the history, culture, and contributions of these people whom we call "minorities."

Vilma Socorro Martínez Speech (1990)

I don’t have a history, only a past.

Hilary Mantel The Mirror & the Light (2020)

I have always maintained that British history in the eighteenth century is primarily a history of country houses.

Lewis Namier

To other English is to make audible the imperial power sewn into the language, to slit English open so its dark histories slide out.

Cathy Park Hong Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (2020)

Since the earliest history, poetry and the spoken word have been the pulse of human civilization.

Marjorie Agosín Invisible Dreamer: Memory, Judaism & Human Rights (2002)

I was screaming for Algeria's pride and Algeria's history, and still more.

Hassiba Boulmerka

We have to be the storytellers of our own history, present and future.We need to create the reflections we want to see.

Amarachi Nwosu

History will judge us not by the volume of our debates but by the value of our decisions.

Godswill Akpabio

Egypt has an honourable history in the advocacy and defence of human rights, unlike some countries that always attack Egypt on its human rights record.

Laila Takla

There is a lot of American history waiting to be rediscovered, once you get away from the official version

Ossie Davis

What seems to destroy world orders (at least in history) is not great power rivalry, but structural pressures that fray connective tissues.

Ayşe Zarakol

Traveling gives you that exposure to different ways of life, diverse cultures and history. And that only enhance one’s knowledge of the world.

Karen Gallman

Oral and written literature in African indigenous languages hold an important foundational position in the history of African literature.

Ernest Emenyonu

At this point in our history, I will advise that we should not confuse causes and effects, symptoms and consequences.

Dimeji Bankole

"History is made up of the stories that survive."

Esi Edugyan

For too long, Africa has been framed as an afterthought in world history—a continent written into the margins of time.

Mamadou Diouf

African history is filled with experiences of people shooting their way to power and then splintering into factions, like in Somalia and Liberia.

George Ayittey

It is not right for us today to write off our past generations and pretend that history began when we were born.

Ezekiel Mphahlele

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