Famous Quotes About History (2024)

Discover Your Roots With These Famous History Quotes

Famous Quotes About History (1)

By

Simran Khurana

Education Expert

  • M.B.A, Human Resource Development and Management, Narsee Monjee Institution of Management Studies
  • B.S., University of Mumbai, Commerce, Accounting, and Finance

Simran Khurana is the Editor-in-Chief for ReachIvy, and a teacher and freelance writer and editor, who uses quotations in her pedagogy.

Learn about ourEditorial Process

Updated on November 12, 2017

We marvel at the ancient architectural wonders that attract tourists the world over. But the essence lies in the history of the foundation. History's frozen music is like a mute sentinel who helps cultures survive. Victories and failures, traditions and heritage, make history ever changing. Yet history remains the same.

Read these famous history quotes and get drawn into the realms of the past.

Voltaire
"History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes."

Napoleon Bonaparte
"What is history but a fable agreed upon?"

Karl Marx
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

Winston Churchill
"History is written by the victors."

Thomas Jefferson
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

John Maynard Keynes
"Ideas shape the course of history."

William Shakespeare
"There is a history in all men's lives."

Mark Twain
"The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice."

Henry David Thoreau
"It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man."

Alexander Smith
"I go into my library and all history unrolls before me."

Robert Heinlein
"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future."

Marshall McLuhan
"Only the vanquished remember history."

Mohandas Gandhi
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

Stephen Covey
"Live out of your imagination, not your history."

Martin Luther King, Jr.
"We are not makers of history. We are made by history."

Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Things have never been more like the way they are today in history."

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Khurana, Simran. "Famous History Quotes." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/famous-history-quotes-2832302.Khurana, Simran. (2021, February 16). Famous History Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/famous-history-quotes-2832302Khurana, Simran. "Famous History Quotes." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/famous-history-quotes-2832302 (accessed June 22, 2024).

Famous Quotes About History (2024)

FAQs

What is a powerful quote about history? ›

"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." "Only the vanquished remember history." "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." "Live out of your imagination, not your history."

What are five famous quotes in history? ›

Famous quotes in English
QuoteWhoLanguage
Parting is such sweet sorrowWilliam ShakespeareEnglish
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.John Dalberg-ActonEnglish
Speak softly and carry a big stickTheodore RooseveltEnglish
That's one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.Neil ArmstrongEnglish
54 more rows

What is a catchy quote about history? ›

history quotes
  • We learn from #history that we do not learn from history. ...
  • Difficulty is the excuse #history never accepts. ...
  • You don't change the course of #history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall. ...
  • Indeed, #history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

What is a famous quote about knowing your history? ›

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." "Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good.

What is the old saying about history? ›

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” “If you don't know history, it's as if you were born yesterday. If you were born yesterday then any leader can tell you anything.” “Study history, study history.

What is an inspirational quote about making history? ›

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The quote by Making History, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of studying history and learning from past experiences.

What is the quote about remembering history? ›

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

What is a famous quote about ignoring history? ›

Irish statesman Edmund Burke is often misquoted as having said, “Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.” Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail ...

What is a famous quote about the past? ›

Respect the past; you never know how it may affect you.” “Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.”

What are some quotes about history and wisdom? ›

"The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present." "The true use of history, whether civil or military, is not to make man clever for the next time, it is to make him wise forever." "For wisdom is the great end of History. It is designed to supply the want of experience."

What are some quotes about people and history? ›

Quotes
  • Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind. ...
  • Two things we ought to learn from history: one, that we are not in ourselves superior to our fathers; another, that we are shamefully and monstrously inferior to them, if we do not advance beyond them.

What is a famous quote about history repeating? ›

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

What is a famous quote about writing history? ›

" Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it." "History can be well written only in a free country." "History to be above evasion must stand on documents not on opinion."

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