Bored of all that 'history repeats itself' shebang? Looking for some new ideas to impress your friends when talking about historical events, of which we seem to have more than enough these days? Well then, you've come to the exact right place at the exact right moment, for this is our selection of the best history quotes ever!
Now, most of these are famous people's quotes, but who said that it isn't cool to read what people who made history had to say about it? Others are just plain famous quotes - ones whose author might be a bit more obscure, but their words nevertheless made enough of an impact to stick around with us for literally ages to be met in school books and on coffee mugs. Of course, these quotes about history will also have some new info to share with you, although it is funny when you think that we ourselves are living in history, yet there's always something new about it. Well, anyhoo, you’d better check out these history quotes for yourself before we hammer some assumptions into you.
So, scroll on down below and check the undeniably powerful quotes out! Once you've skimmed through all of them, give the best quotes your vote, and share this inspiring but also slightly intimidating article with your friends!
#1
“You have to know the past to understand the present.” ― Carl Sagan
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#2
“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” - Robert Heinlein
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#3
“There is no document of civilization that is not also a document of barbarism.” ― Walter Benjamin
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#4
“The more I study history the more I realize how little mankind has changed. There are no new scripts, just different actors.” - Richard Paul Evans
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#5
“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveler.” - Henry Glassie
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#6
“History gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions.” - Hajo Holborn
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#7
“We learn from history that we don't learn from history!” ― Desmond Tutu
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#8
“Well, that's history for you, folks. Unfair, untrue and for the most part written by folk who weren't even there.” ― Joanne Harris
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#9
"We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let's face it, is mostly the history of stupidity." ― Stephen Hawking
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#10
“History is a vast early warning system.” - Norman Cousins
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#11
“It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world occasionally swapped history books, just to see what the other people are doing with the same set of facts.” - Bill Vaughan
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#12
“History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ― Mark Twain
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#13
“History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.” ― James Fenimore Cooper
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#14
“There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good.” ― Stephen Colbert
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#15
“History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.” ― George R.R. Martin
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#16
“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” ― Golda Meir
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#17
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
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#18
"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." - Maya Angelou
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#19
"History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor." - Mahmoud Darwish
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#20
“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” - David McCullough
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