Who controls the past, controls the future Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past. George Orwell 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

We learn from history that we do not learn from history. Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. George Bernard Shaw 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. Aldous Huxley 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves. James A. Garfield 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History repeats itself; that's one of the things that's wrong with history. Clarence Darrow 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History repeats itself, says the proverb, but that is precisely what it never really does. It is the historians (of a sort) who repeat themselves. Clement F. Rogers 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

It was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history. John Toland 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it. John F. Kennedy 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

I don't know much about history, and I wouldn't give a nickel for all the history in the world. History is more or less bunk. It is tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today. Henry Ford 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

He has made more history than his critics ever read. A lot of guys have had a lot of fun joking about Henry Ford because he admitted one time that he didn't know history. He don't know it, but history will know him. He has made more history than his critics ever read. Will Rogers 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is a set of lies agreed upon. Napoleon Bonaparte 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. Ambrose Bierce 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is written by the winners. George Orwell 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is the propaganda of the victors. Ernst Toller 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The past has always been the handmaid of authority. J. H. Plumb 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

It is the essence of the poor that they do not appear in history. Anonymous 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History must be written of, by and for the survivors. Anonymous 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is too much about wars; biography too much about great men. Virginia Woolf 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought. Etienne Gilson 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is nothing but a collection of fables and useless trifles, cluttered up with a mass of unnecessary figures and proper names. Leo Tolstoy 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

There is no history, only histories. Karl Popper 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History does nothing, possesses no enormous wealth, fights no battles History does nothing, possesses no enormous wealth, fights no battles. It is rather man, the real, living man, who does everything, possesses, fights. It is not History, as if she were a person apart, who uses men as a means to work out her pursuing their purposes. Karl Marx 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History, facts and truth are all Divine Products, and must prevail. Charles A. Briggs 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided. Konrad Adenauer 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle. Eric Hoffer 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is not a catalogue but a convincing version of events. A. J. P. Taylor 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History is a vast early warning system Norman Cousins 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

Historians have powerful imaginations, which are essential and dangerous. Robert Stinson 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future. Jessamyn West 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

I often think it odd that it [history] should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention. Catherine Morland 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

A historian who would convey the truth must lie A historian who would convey the truth must lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it. Mark Twain 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull. Anatole France 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

History would be a wonderful thing — if it were only true. Leo Tolstoy 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation. John Hope Franklin 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

It should be known that history is a discipline that has a great number of approaches. Ibn Khaldun 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that ... women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves. Louise Otto 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

As soon as histories are properly told there is no more need of romances. Walt Whitman 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history. Pierre Bayle 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

Genuine historical knowledge requires nobility of character, a profound under-standing of human existence — not detachment and objectivity. Friedrich Nietzsche 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. Mark Twain 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

We never know the whole truth about the past. Men ever praise the olden time and find fault with the present … they laud all they remember to have seen in their youth. Their opinion is generally erroneous … We never know the whole truth about the past. Nicólo Machiavelli 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The main thing is make history, not to write it. Otto von Bismarck 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it. Oscar Wilde 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch

The “good old days” were never all that good. John C. Olbrich (Mr. Strickland’s Great Grandfather) 8/4/2009 Compiled by Jim Lerch