{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history", "heading": "Quotes about history", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md", "quotes_count": 452, "authors_count": 238, "parent": null, "children": [ { "name": "legacy", "slug": "legacy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/legacy", "heading": "Quotes about legacy" } ], "quotes": [ { "id": "6ef6c490-1fc3-4415-9fda-69677a839b87", "slug": "poetry-is-finer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics/poetry-is-finer", "text": "Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aristotle", "slug": "aristotle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle" }, "book": { "title": "Poetics", "slug": "poetics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle#Poetics", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:46" }, { "id": "4dc4a30d-e343-4967-ab2d-8dc6c2f63f13", "slug": "cleopatras-nose-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/cleopatras-nose-had", "text": "Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Blaise Pascal", "slug": "blaise-pascal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal" }, "book": { "title": "Pensees", "slug": "pensees", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es#Section_II:_The_Misery_of_Man_without_God_(60-183)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:54" }, { "id": "178caf49-46e4-4ff1-aa2f-68db961b204c", "slug": "history-is-of-two-kinds-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac/lost-illusions/history-is-of-two-kinds-there", "text": "History is of two kinds—there is the official history taught in schools, a lying compilation ad usum delphini; and there is the secret history which deals with the real causes of events—a scandalous chronicle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Honoré de Balzac", "slug": "honore-de-balzac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac" }, "book": { "title": "Lost Illusions", "slug": "lost-illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac/lost-illusions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac#Lost_Illusions_(1837-1843)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:40" }, { "id": "5568ce20-7623-4425-8e61-0fcd2d67cd57", "slug": "in-the-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/in-the-end", "text": "In the end, man is not entirely guilty — he did not start history. Nor is he wholly innocent — he continues it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Rebel", "slug": "the-rebel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Rebel_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:03" }, { "id": "a15b891c-caf2-46f0-ad4b-e9397863e7b4", "slug": "histories-make-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/histories-make-men", "text": "Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Francis Bacon", "slug": "francis-bacon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon" }, "book": { "title": "The Essays", "slug": "the-essays", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Essays_(Francis_Bacon)#Of_Ceremonies_and_Respect", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:22" }, { "id": "f774dbda-3706-4513-b60a-2f9f15704acf", "slug": "ash-imagines-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral/ash-imagines-you", "text": "“Ash imagines you a conservative,” Lowbeer said, “or a romantic, perhaps. She sees your distaste for the present rooted in the sense of a fall from grace. That some prior order, or perhaps the lack of one, afforded a more authentic existence.”\n\n“I simply imagine things were less tedious,” Netherton said.\n\n“I personally recall that world, which you can only imagine was preferable to this one,” she said. “Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "The Peripheral", "slug": "the-peripheral", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jackpot_trilogy#The_Peripheral_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:16" }, { "id": "bf96a349-82cf-45b0-a084-82d99d8752b8", "slug": "although-it-is-easy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/the-glass-bead-game/although-it-is-easy", "text": "Although it is easy to fit any given segment of the past neatly and intelligibly into the patterns of world history, contemporaries are never able to see their own place in the patterns.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hermann Hesse", "slug": "hermann-hesse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse" }, "book": { "title": "The Glass Bead Game", "slug": "the-glass-bead-game", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/the-glass-bead-game" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:08" }, { "id": "d105920d-07b3-46c3-8fec-04fdcafb966f", "slug": "history-a-distillation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/the-french-revolution/history-a-distillation", "text": "History a distillation of Rumour.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Carlyle", "slug": "thomas-carlyle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle" }, "book": { "title": "The French Revolution", "slug": "the-french-revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/the-french-revolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "gossip", "slug": "gossip", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#The_French_Revolution._A_History_(1837)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:53" }, { "id": "643883cc-91d9-42f9-9a37-93f9c7422b49", "slug": "history-however-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-jones/henry-v/history-however-is-not", "text": "History, however, is not a congeniality contest. How we rate Henry for likability today is of little consequence. What matters is what he did in his own time, how he optimized for the standards of his own age, and what the consequences were of his relatively short life and reign.\n\nThis is a more straightforward assessment to make. In his day, the weight of opinion was that Henry was somewhere close to the paragon of kingship, measured both by his personal bearing and by his political and military achievements.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dan Jones", "slug": "dan-jones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-jones" }, "book": { "title": "Henry V", "slug": "henry-v", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-jones/henry-v" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 359, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dan_Jones_(writer)#Henry_V:_The_Astonishing_Triumph_of_England's_Greatest_Warrior_King_(2024)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:23" }, { "id": "d6e8aa8d-f6fa-4538-8909-34167b289b44", "slug": "even-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eliezer-yudkowsky/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/even-in-the", "text": "Even in the face of superhuman machine intelligence, it can be tempting to imagine that the world will keep looking the way it has over the last few decades of our relatively short lives. It is true, but hard to remember, that there was a time is real as our own time, just a few short centuries ago, when civilization was radically different. Or millennia ago, when there was no civilization to speak of. Or a million years ago, when there were no humans. Or a billion years ago, when multicellular colonies had no specialized cells.\n\nAdopting a historical perspective can help us appreciate what is so hard to see from the perspective of our own short lifespans: Nature permits disruption. Nature permits calamity. Nature permits the world to never be the same again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eliezer Yudkowsky", "slug": "eliezer-yudkowsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eliezer-yudkowsky" }, "book": { "title": "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies", "slug": "if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eliezer-yudkowsky/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 10, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/If_Anyone_Builds_It,_Everyone_Dies#Introduction:_Hard_Calls_and_Easy_Calls", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:08" }, { "id": "aeede2a6-a151-40e6-9cd4-f18ccb3f8519", "slug": "throughout-history-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willis-harman/global-mind-change/throughout-history-the", "text": "Throughout history, the really fundamental changes in societies have come about not from the dictates of governments and the results of battles, but through vast numbers of people changing their minds — sometimes only a little bit.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willis Harman", "slug": "willis-harman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willis-harman" }, "book": { "title": "Global Mind Change", "slug": "global-mind-change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willis-harman/global-mind-change" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willis_Harman#Global_Mind_Change_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:00" }, { "id": "964eed30-07f2-49e3-9137-425e7d0d001f", "slug": "but-real-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22/but-real-history", "text": "But real history is more pitiless even than you had been told it was.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "Hitch 22", "slug": "hitch-22", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 373, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hitch-22#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:57" }, { "id": "41bceb7f-313b-4ac9-bbb3-638c28da87e0", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22/it-is-not", "text": "It is not so much that there are ironies of history, it is that history itself is ironic. It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties. It is not only true that the test of knowledge is an acute and cultivated awareness of how little one knows (as Socrates knew so well), it is true that the unbounded areas and fields of one’s ignorance are now expanding in such a way, and at such a velocity, as to make the contemplation of them almost fantastically beautiful.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "Hitch 22", "slug": "hitch-22", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 420, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "uncertainty", "slug": "uncertainty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/uncertainty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hitch-22#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:57" }, { "id": "95e183d4-6542-484c-8ed4-16834e57e876", "slug": "attempts-to-locate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22/attempts-to-locate", "text": "Attempts to locate oneself within history are as natural, and as absurd, as attempts to locate oneself within astronomy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "Hitch 22", "slug": "hitch-22", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 331, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hitch-22#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:56" }, { "id": "ef79398d-be2d-4e64-aa0d-7a2b3fff68b3", "slug": "it-is-indeed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/europe/it-is-indeed", "text": "It is indeed the duty of historians to stress the contrast between the standards of the past and the standards of the present. Some fulfil that duty on purpose, others by accident.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Davies", "slug": "norman-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies" }, "book": { "title": "Europe", "slug": "europe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/europe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 509, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Davies#Europe:_A_History_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:52" }, { "id": "3b2ae027-6f56-45c3-a54f-c4576ec48a50", "slug": "reconstructing-the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/europe/reconstructing-the-past", "text": "Reconstructing the past is rather like translating poetry. It can be done, but never exactly. Whether one deals with prehistoric recipes, colonial settlements, or medieval music, it needs great imagination and restraint if the twin perils of artless authenticity and clueless empathy are to be avoided.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Davies", "slug": "norman-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies" }, "book": { "title": "Europe", "slug": "europe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/europe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 83, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Davies#Europe:_A_History_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:52" }, { "id": "0ac459ed-1000-4d10-9e50-07d6aba9b9d3", "slug": "all-the-nations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/vanished-kingdoms/all-the-nations", "text": "All the nations that ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand. The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the human material is atomized and recycled. But if we know where to look, there is always a remnant, a remainder, an irreducible residue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Davies", "slug": "norman-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies" }, "book": { "title": "Vanished Kingdoms", "slug": "vanished-kingdoms", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-davies/vanished-kingdoms" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 393, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Davies#Vanished_Kingdoms_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:52" }, { "id": "68f12d8b-0392-460a-9510-e3a750e65c66", "slug": "some-history-making-is-intentional", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurel-thatcher-ulrich/well-behaved-women-seldom-make-history/some-history-making-is-intentional", "text": "Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental. People make history when they scale a mountain, ignite a bomb, or refuse to move to the back of the bus. But they also make history by keeping diaries, writing letters, or embroidering initials on linen sheets. History is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible. People make history by passing on gossip, saving old records, and by naming rivers, mountains, and children. Some people leave only their bones, though bones too make history when someone notices.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Laurel Thatcher Ulrich", "slug": "laurel-thatcher-ulrich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurel-thatcher-ulrich" }, "book": { "title": "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History", "slug": "well-behaved-women-seldom-make-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurel-thatcher-ulrich/well-behaved-women-seldom-make-history" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laurel_Thatcher_Ulrich#Well-Behaved_Women_Seldom_Make_History_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51" }, { "id": "8a8741e3-79bc-49c1-8b63-eba6e9d0d3d5", "slug": "small-moments-unnoticed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods/small-moments-unnoticed", "text": "Small moments, unnoticed at the time, change the fate of empires.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "The Mercy of Gods", "slug": "the-mercy-of-gods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 14, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#The_Mercy_of_Gods_(2024)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:39" }, { "id": "fe3f16bb-c0ab-415f-8068-74af5622b084", "slug": "youre-not-picking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/persepolis-rising/youre-not-picking", "text": "“You’re not picking a fight with the things that made the protomolecule. You’re picking a fight with whatever killed them. Orders of magnitude above the things that were orders of magnitude above us. You’ve got to know this is going to escalate if we keep using these technologies.”\n\n“We were always going to keep using these technologies. That was inevitable the moment we opened the gates,” Duarte said. “If you’ve studied any history at all, you know that. Never in human history have we discovered something useful and then chosen not to use it.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Persepolis Rising", "slug": "persepolis-rising", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/persepolis-rising" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 548, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Persepolis_Rising_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:38" }, { "id": "3abde369-1e54-4c45-ad24-a6cd5ea8d49a", "slug": "historys-made-of-surprises", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games/historys-made-of-surprises", "text": "History’s made of surprises that seem obvious in retrospect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Nemesis Games", "slug": "nemesis-games", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 296, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Nemesis_Games_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:36" }, { "id": "eac09489-5090-4076-b520-08b1a41e523a", "slug": "if-fred-couldnt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-wakes/if-fred-couldnt", "text": "If Fred couldn’t build himself a peace treaty, the OPA would never win against the discipline and unity of an inner planet navy. But they would also never lose. War without end.\n\nWell, what was history if not that?\n\nAnd how would having the stars change anything?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Leviathan Wakes", "slug": "leviathan-wakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-wakes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 467, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Leviathan_Wakes_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:35" }, { "id": "126cf8f6-a334-4b0b-b059-2d1a78cf9451", "slug": "history-is-an-ongoing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-bronski/a-queer-history-of-the-united-states/history-is-an-ongoing", "text": "History is an ongoing process through which we understand and define ourselves and our lives.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Bronski", "slug": "michael-bronski", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-bronski" }, "book": { "title": "A Queer History of the United States", "slug": "a-queer-history-of-the-united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-bronski/a-queer-history-of-the-united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Bronski#Introduction", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:11" }, { "id": "a854a652-0711-4971-85d9-556a8cc8b147", "slug": "when-you-feel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye/the-transgender-issue/when-you-feel", "text": "When you feel your culture and identity endangered and ephemeral, the anchor of history and the celebration of antecedents can be empowering, and worth fighting fiercely for.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shon Faye", "slug": "shon-faye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye" }, "book": { "title": "The Transgender Issue", "slug": "the-transgender-issue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye/the-transgender-issue" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shon_Faye#Chapter_Six", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:10" }, { "id": "b27877ae-57e6-4f0a-905e-7c563e68b341", "slug": "roman-history-is-constantly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard/spqr/roman-history-is-constantly", "text": "Roman history is constantly being written around, it has always been done; In a sense, we know more about our ancient Romans than they themselves knew. In other words, Roman history is a work in progress.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Beard", "slug": "mary-beard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard" }, "book": { "title": "SPQR", "slug": "spqr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard/spqr" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Beard_(classicist)#SPQR:_A_History_of_Ancient_Rome_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:07" }, { "id": "520599e7-5c76-430b-a16e-26c9f4145ffd", "slug": "this-is-a-dangerous", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard/spqr/this-is-a-dangerous", "text": "This is a dangerous myth if we think we are better historians than our predecessors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Beard", "slug": "mary-beard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard" }, "book": { "title": "SPQR", "slug": "spqr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-beard/spqr" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Beard_(classicist)#SPQR:_A_History_of_Ancient_Rome_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:07" }, { "id": "fbeffe34-6e6f-42a2-8b91-e0dd21fdff61", "slug": "if-we-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/the-greatest-generation-speaks/if-we-are", "text": "If we are to heed the past to prepare for the future, we should listen to these voices of a generation that speaks to us of duty and honor, sacrifice and accomplishment. I hope more of their stories will be preserved and cherished as reminders of all that we owe them and all that we can learn from them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tom Brokaw", "slug": "tom-brokaw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw" }, "book": { "title": "The Greatest Generation Speaks", "slug": "the-greatest-generation-speaks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/the-greatest-generation-speaks" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Brokaw#The_Greatest_Generation_Speaks_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:01" }, { "id": "22fdaef7-1456-4877-9b8d-b6e06377bd47", "slug": "well-as-i-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice/well-as-i-say", "text": "Well, as I say, authority is always lawfully relinquished, but sometimes the legitimacy is acquired after the relinquishment.\n\n“You mean retroactively?”\n\nI mean that cause and effect are not always arranged in an ideal sequence.\n\n“In other words,” Filidor translated, “not only do victors write the histories, but usurpers also rewrite the rule book to justify the illicit seizure of office.”\n\nPerhaps not the most felicitous manner of putting it, but essentially correct.\n\n“I am surprised the people put up with such shenanigans. They should rise up.”\n\nUnwittingly, I am sure, you put your finger on the flaw in your own reasoning.\n\n“How so?”\n\nYou said, “They should rise up,” not “We should rise up.” As long as it is a matter to be solved by others, it will not be.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Fool Me Twice", "slug": "fool-me-twice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 301, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Fool_Me_Twice_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:53" }, { "id": "8d82c6e7-ab72-4da2-9440-19a8323f531c", "slug": "it-was-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/it-was-all", "text": "It was all tied up in that same old question. How much did man strike outward to affect all his surroundings and how much did the surroundings press in upon him? Did the Napoleonic Age produce Napoleon or did he produce it?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George R. Stewart", "slug": "george-r-stewart", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart" }, "book": { "title": "Earth Abides", "slug": "earth-abides", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 294, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_R._Stewart#Earth_Abides_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:35" }, { "id": "19f28b79-1a94-41e7-a193-66c29e7b6f67", "slug": "our-histories-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/our-histories-are", "text": "Our histories are inevitably braided together with our futures.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 365, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:33" }, { "id": "ecb0459d-5de6-4689-a1aa-892d5de22934", "slug": "history-moves-in-a-circle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/history-moves-in-a-circle", "text": "History moves in a circle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 35, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "8eb04601-3cc8-4e29-a893-32129d0ba7d2", "slug": "while-history-is-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikole-hannah-jones/the-1619-project-born-on-the-water/while-history-is-what", "text": "While history is what happened, it is also, just as important, how we think about what happened and what we unearth and choose to remember about what happened", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nikole Hannah-Jones", "slug": "nikole-hannah-jones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikole-hannah-jones" }, "book": { "title": "The 1619 Project: Born on the Water", "slug": "the-1619-project-born-on-the-water", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikole-hannah-jones/the-1619-project-born-on-the-water" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikole_Hannah-Jones#The_1619_Project_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:29" }, { "id": "fd0516ed-bba6-4f32-a390-b4bbfff59980", "slug": "at-some-point", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clint-smith/how-the-word-is-passed/at-some-point", "text": "At some point it is no longer a question of whether we can learn this history but whether we have the collective will to reckon with it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clint Smith", "slug": "clint-smith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clint-smith" }, "book": { "title": "How the Word Is Passed", "slug": "how-the-word-is-passed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clint-smith/how-the-word-is-passed" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clint_Smith_(writer)#How_the_Word_is_Passed_(2021)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:28" }, { "id": "dea73257-2771-4531-b6c7-6f4caa38a7c1", "slug": "it-has-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/it-has-been", "text": "“It has been the fate of many a man,” said Naakkve, “that those who were his fiercest opponents in life found success on the road he had pointed out to them—but only after they had made him into fodder for the worms. After his mouth was stuffed with earth, the lesser men no longer shrank from affirming the truth of his words.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigrid Undset", "slug": "sigrid-undset", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset" }, "book": { "title": "The Cross", "slug": "the-cross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 306, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#The_Cross_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:26" }, { "id": "85e8c147-cfa1-42be-9c77-ec1c4f1d2486", "slug": "there-cannot-be-new", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/there-cannot-be-new", "text": "There cannot be new things in England. There can be old things freshly presented or new things that pretend to be old.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hilary Mantel", "slug": "hilary-mantel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel" }, "book": { "title": "Wolf Hall", "slug": "wolf-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:19" }, { "id": "5ce5130c-ec15-4035-99a0-c9cab9a28a54", "slug": "beneath-every-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/beneath-every-history", "text": "Beneath every history, another history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hilary Mantel", "slug": "hilary-mantel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel" }, "book": { "title": "Wolf Hall", "slug": "wolf-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 61, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:19" }, { "id": "beb13a62-80a9-4b26-b503-acfdd98a9815", "slug": "most-of-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric/most-of-history", "text": "Most of history is pretty appalling, when you look hard at it. Or even not very hard. (p. 147)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Eric", "slug": "eric", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:14" }, { "id": "97c04796-edf9-4783-9180-85ae9d57ad8d", "slug": "he-also-appeared", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric/he-also-appeared", "text": "He also appeared to have changed the course of history, although this is impossible since the only thing you can do to the course of history is facilitate it. (p. 126)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Eric", "slug": "eric", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:14" }, { "id": "5907beee-d566-4576-aec9-60d18624a9c4", "slug": "history-does-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-c-winegard/the-mosquito/history-does-not", "text": "History does not warehouse well in neatly labeled boxes, for events do not exist in quarantined isolation. They exist on a broad spectrum, and all influence and shape each other. Historical episodes are rarely built on the ground of a single foundation. Most are the product of a tangled web of influences and cascading cause-and-effect relationships within a broader historical narrative. The mosquito and her diseases are no different.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Timothy C. Winegard", "slug": "timothy-c-winegard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-c-winegard" }, "book": { "title": "The Mosquito", "slug": "the-mosquito", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-c-winegard/the-mosquito" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 15, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Timothy_C._Winegard#The_Mosquito:_A_Human_History_of_Our_Deadliest_Predator_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:07" }, { "id": "25635fbb-3f1a-47ed-bd77-34b67337f29d", "slug": "ive-seen-children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helon-habila/oil-on-water/ive-seen-children", "text": "I've seen children snatched away from their mothers, never to be reunited. I've seen husbands taken from their wives and kids and sent away to prison. I've seen grown men flogged by soldiers in front of their kids. That's how history is made, and it's our job to witness it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Helon Habila", "slug": "helon-habila", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helon-habila" }, "book": { "title": "Oil on Water", "slug": "oil-on-water", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helon-habila/oil-on-water" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Helon_Habila#Oil_on_Water_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:59" }, { "id": "7622219f-27c1-4ab6-81cd-231d530a536c", "slug": "the-sad-truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-seven-sexes/the-sad-truth", "text": "The sad truth about political saints of any given past is that nobody but a scholar will take the trouble to read their complete works and try to see them whole.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Tenn", "slug": "william-tenn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn" }, "book": { "title": "The Seven Sexes", "slug": "the-seven-sexes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-seven-sexes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 147, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Tenn#The_Seven_Sexes_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:58" }, { "id": "cb403ec7-d7ca-4eef-82d1-f8ed603d61c4", "slug": "the-actual-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/the-actual-past", "text": "The actual past is brittle, ever-dimming + ever more problematic to access + reconstruct: in contrast, the virtual past is malleable, ever-brightening + ever more difficult to circumvent/expose as fraudulent.\n\nThe present presses the virtual past into its own service, to lend credence to its mythologies + legitimacy to the imposition of will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 392, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Half-Lives:_The_First_Luisa_Rey_Mystery_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57" }, { "id": "9e2fc5f6-8f69-49c0-b087-0017c5938c6b", "slug": "we-cut-a-pack", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/we-cut-a-pack", "text": "We cut a pack of cards called historical context—our generation, Sixsmith, cut tens, jacks, and queens. Adrien's cut threes, fours, and fives. That's all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 442, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57" }, { "id": "8f32c0f4-382c-4013-9c79-ec8692477f63", "slug": "scholars-discern-motions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/scholars-discern-motions", "text": "Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes.\n\nWhat precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.\n\nWhat precipitates acts? Belief.\n\nBelief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boer-haaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?\n\nWhy? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.\n\nIs this the doom written within our nature?\n\nIf we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 507, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "selfishness", "slug": "selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness" }, { "name": "beliefs", "slug": "beliefs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57" }, { "id": "58c3ae73-958b-4cc8-bf28-b9e3548f518f", "slug": "fantasy-lunacy-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/fantasy-lunacy-all", "text": "Fantasy. Lunacy.\n\nAll revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 326, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revolution", "slug": "revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#An_Orison_of_Sonmi~451_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:56" }, { "id": "5e3fc440-9b06-4186-b800-d1cda6ba660c", "slug": "it-is-supposed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses/it-is-supposed", "text": "It is supposed to be true that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. I don’t believe knowing can save us. What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood, and this is a thing that even God—who knows all that can be known—seems powerless to change.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "All the Pretty Horses", "slug": "all-the-pretty-horses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_Pretty_Horses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:41" }, { "id": "afab4027-afeb-4fb2-afba-183f2011c745", "slug": "this-may-be-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/this-may-be-the", "text": "This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: “At the time, no one knew what was coming.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "1Q84", "slug": "1q84", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "foreseeing the future", "slug": "foreseeing-the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/foreseeing-the-future" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_1_(April-June)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "af84e9ff-ed8c-4a5d-8acf-9e18893dfe97", "slug": "the-dowager-smiled", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/the-dowager-smiled", "text": "The dowager smiled. “What an interesting person you are!”\n\nAomame said, “I’m a very ordinary human being. I just happen to like reading books. Especially history books.”\n\n“I like history books too. They teach us that we are basically the same, whether now or in the old days. There may be a few differences in clothing and lifestyle, but there’s not that much difference in what we think and do. Human beings are ultimately nothing but carriers—passageways—for genes. They ride us into the ground like racehorses from generation to generation. Genes don’t think about what constitutes good or evil. They don’t care whether we are happy or unhappy. We’re just a means to an end for them. The only thing they think about is what is most efficient for them.”\n\n“In spite of that, we can’t help but think about what is good and what is evil. Is that what you’re saying?”\n\nThe dowager nodded. “Exactly. People have to think about those things. But genes are what control the basis for how we live. Naturally, a contradiction arises,” she said with a smile.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "1Q84", "slug": "1q84", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 268, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_1_(April-June)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "636f4473-1fe5-42bf-9a11-87fe9cbfda8b", "slug": "but-this-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons/but-this-was", "text": "But this was the eighteenth century, when life was cheap and ambition unlimited.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Amongst Our Weapons", "slug": "amongst-our-weapons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 68, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Amongst_our_Weapons_(2022)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:34" }, { "id": "af527c09-f05e-4e13-a40a-4c35ec366638", "slug": "im-interested-in-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/tales-from-the-folly/im-interested-in-history", "text": "“I’m interested in history,” I said. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”\n\n“Why would a young man like you be interested in history?”\n\n“So I can avoid repeating it.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Tales From The Folly", "slug": "tales-from-the-folly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/tales-from-the-folly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 16, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Tales_from_the_Folly_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:33" }, { "id": "c586b86c-7742-4181-8b24-19e2e3bbb123", "slug": "most-archaeology-in-london", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/lies-sleeping/most-archaeology-in-london", "text": "Most archaeology in London these days is rescue archaeology—projects designed to preserve as much as possible from the relentless cash-driven redevelopment. It’s not a new problem. Ask a medievalist about Victorian cellars or an Iron Age specialist about medieval ploughing—but take snacks, because you’re going to be there for a while.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Lies Sleeping", "slug": "lies-sleeping", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/lies-sleeping" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 33, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Lies_Sleeping_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:31" }, { "id": "d92f45e1-22c5-4b6e-b67d-107d21178571", "slug": "nightingale-had-taught", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes/nightingale-had-taught", "text": "Nightingale had taught me to be cautious of the early sources. “A great deal of it is accurate,” he said. “And a great deal is less so. Unfortunately it can be difficult to determine which is which.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Broken Homes", "slug": "broken-homes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 138, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Broken_Homes_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:30" }, { "id": "f154f569-be5a-43f6-a01b-fd14769977ba", "slug": "reading-sheds-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis/call-sign-chaos/reading-sheds-light", "text": "Reading sheds light on our dark path ahead. By traveling into the past, I enhance my grasp of the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jim Mattis", "slug": "jim-mattis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis" }, "book": { "title": "Call Sign Chaos", "slug": "call-sign-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis/call-sign-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 42, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis#Call_Sign_Chaos:_Learning_to_Lead_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:22" }, { "id": "b2ebc048-cb69-471c-9bbc-995c5abcc10f", "slug": "history-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary/history-is-the", "text": "History is the world’s most egotistical gossip.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jim C. Hines", "slug": "jim-c-hines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines" }, "book": { "title": "Revisionary", "slug": "revisionary", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 88, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "gossip", "slug": "gossip", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_C._Hines#Revisionary_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:21" }, { "id": "2c85a2d3-ae52-48b4-87f2-3f7d916f65a6", "slug": "and-as-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical/and-as-was", "text": "And, as was so often the case, the history taught to children was oversimplified, watered down, and ofttimes counterfactual.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Tregillis", "slug": "ian-tregillis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis" }, "book": { "title": "The Mechanical", "slug": "the-mechanical", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Tregillis#The_Mechanical_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:18" }, { "id": "1b98d63e-0d01-43d5-8fc8-57ed69ca725a", "slug": "nothing-new-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami/the-moors-account/nothing-new-has", "text": "Nothing new has ever happened to a son of Adam, she said. Everything has already been lived and everything has already been told. If only we listened to the stories. (p52)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Laila Lalami", "slug": "laila-lalami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami" }, "book": { "title": "The Moor's Account", "slug": "the-moors-account", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami/the-moors-account" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laila_Lalami#The_Moor's_Account_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:56" }, { "id": "2e603f4f-0979-4e27-85b1-1de627c3ddb4", "slug": "we-are-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-martinez/de-colores-means-all-of-us/we-are-all", "text": "We are all inseparable from our times, whether we realize it or not.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Elizabeth Martínez", "slug": "elizabeth-martinez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-martinez" }, "book": { "title": "De Colores Means All of Us", "slug": "de-colores-means-all-of-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-martinez/de-colores-means-all-of-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Martinez#%E2%80%9CIntroduction:_A_Call_for_Rainbow_Warriors%E2%80%9D", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:55" }, { "id": "0541962a-490e-46bb-98d8-ef9f8cae00d7", "slug": "technicalities-are-however", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marion-l-starkey/the-devil-in-massachusetts/technicalities-are-however", "text": "Technicalities are, however, of more interest to historians than to contemporaries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marion L. Starkey", "slug": "marion-l-starkey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marion-l-starkey" }, "book": { "title": "The Devil in Massachusetts", "slug": "the-devil-in-massachusetts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marion-l-starkey/the-devil-in-massachusetts" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 268, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marion_L._Starkey#The_Devil_in_Massachusetts:_A_Modern_Enquiry_into_the_Salem_Witch_Trials_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:54" }, { "id": "d7749bac-06f9-47f9-8a66-961e01f5b9e5", "slug": "it-cant-be-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ahdaf-soueif/the-map-of-love/it-cant-be-that", "text": "It can't be that bad. Surely it can't be that bad. There must be a way, only we can't see it yet. A way of making a space for ourselves where we can make the best of ourselves - we just can't quite see it yet. But things move on and by the time you've plotted your position the world around you has changed and you're running - panting to catch up. How can you think clearly when you're running? That is the beauty of the past; there it lies on the table: journals, pictures, a candle-glass, a few books of history. You leave it and come back to it and it waits for you - unchanged. You can turn back the pages, look again at the beginning. You can leaf forward and know the end. 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The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michel-Rolph Trouillot", "slug": "michel-rolph-trouillot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-rolph-trouillot" }, "book": { "title": "Silencing the Past", "slug": "silencing-the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-rolph-trouillot/silencing-the-past" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel-Rolph_Trouillot#Silencing_the_Past:_Power_and_the_Production_of_History_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "05ddda6b-9398-4ff7-9ecb-370b333d7710", "slug": "human-history-extends", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/divergence/human-history-extends", "text": "Human history extends for approximately ten thousand years before the Expansion, with written records available for roughly half that time. Unfortunately, the human tendency for self-delusion, self-aggrandizement, and baseless faith in human superiority over all other intelligent life-forms renders much of the written record unreliable. Serious research workers are advised to seek alternative primary data sources concerning humans. —From the Universal Species Catalog (Subclass: Sapients)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "Divergence", "slug": "divergence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/divergence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 282, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" }, { "name": "self-deception", "slug": "self-deception-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#Divergence_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:33" }, { "id": "c60c120b-2031-4ae5-a17b-e4cde22ed529", "slug": "there-are-a-lot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-ramal-extraction/there-are-a-lot", "text": "There are a lot of promises in the recycle bins of history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Perry", "slug": "steve-perry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry" }, "book": { "title": "The Ramal Extraction", "slug": "the-ramal-extraction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-ramal-extraction" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "promises", "slug": "promises", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/promises" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Perry_(author)#The_Ramal_Extraction_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:28" }, { "id": "e8bebc55-4b53-416e-94b1-47bff3a72c76", "slug": "when-literacy-died", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/when-literacy-died", "text": "When literacy died, so had history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 161, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "35c80e77-5d8d-47fe-ad56-9f9e2b034fe0", "slug": "my-god-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/my-god-the", "text": "My God, the things I have read and learned since I left Ohio! And they have changed me so much I hardly recognize myself. Just knowing that there has been a past to human life and getting a slight sense of what that past was like have altered my mind and my behavior beyond recognition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 255, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "236e9960-0b8f-4176-896c-a30374d3748b", "slug": "we-had-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/we-had-never", "text": "We had never developed a sense of history as such; all we knew, if we ever thought about it, was that there had been others before us and that we were better than they. But no one was ever encouraged to think about anything outside of himself. “Don’t ask; relax.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 142, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "selfishness", "slug": "selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "05e1f975-ad3e-419f-9a18-1f9bd0503d47", "slug": "human-history-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy/looking-backward/human-history-like", "text": "Human history, like all great movements, was cyclical, and returned to the point of beginning. the idea of indefinite progress in a right line was a chimera of the imagination, with no analogue in nature. The parabola of a comet was perhaps a better illustration of the career of humanity. Tending upward and sunward from the aphelion of barbarism, the race attained the perihelion of civilization only to plunge downward once more to its nether goal in the regions of chaos.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Bellamy", "slug": "edward-bellamy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy" }, "book": { "title": "Looking Backward", "slug": "looking-backward", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy/looking-backward" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Looking_Backward:_2000%E2%80%931887#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:24" }, { "id": "429ce938-3b01-4428-9663-d1cc480c58bb", "slug": "we-are-living", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy/we-are-living", "text": "\"We are living at a time when history is holding its breath,\" said Arthur Clarke, author of Childhood's End and 2001 , \"and the present is detaching itself from the past like an iceberg that has broken away from its moorings to sail across the boundless ocean.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marilyn Ferguson", "slug": "marilyn-ferguson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson" }, "book": { "title": "The Aquarian Conspiracy", "slug": "the-aquarian-conspiracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilyn_Ferguson#Chapter_Two,_Premonitions_of_Transformation_and_Conspiracy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:20" }, { "id": "fd19615c-e61d-41ec-83a6-fad7603796b6", "slug": "looking-at-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase/looking-at-things", "text": "\"Looking at things this way,\" she said, comparing the left and right side of the chronology, \"we Japanese seem to live from war to war.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "A Wild Sheep Chase", "slug": "a-wild-sheep-chase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Wild_Sheep_Chase#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:19" }, { "id": "e26eb2c4-3b7b-4c78-acab-764916058cf2", "slug": "before-a-nation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum/iron-curtain/before-a-nation", "text": "Before a nation can be rebuilt, its citizens need to understand how it was destroyed in the first place: how its institutions were undermined, how its language was twisted, how its people were manipulated.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Applebaum", "slug": "anne-applebaum", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum" }, "book": { "title": "Iron Curtain", "slug": "iron-curtain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum/iron-curtain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Applebaum#Iron_Curtain:_The_Crushing_of_Eastern_Europe,_1944-1956_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:04" }, { "id": "c1d1c52c-2fc1-42b1-a399-7bfd8c25d30e", "slug": "a-reluctance-to-recognise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/a-reluctance-to-recognise", "text": "...a reluctance to recognise that today's safety and comfort were bought fifty years ago by means which today's intelligentsia find unacceptable, and from which they wish to distance themselves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George MacDonald Fraser", "slug": "george-macdonald-fraser", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser" }, "book": { "title": "Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma", "slug": "quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "safety", "slug": "safety", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/safety" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_MacDonald_Fraser#Quartered_Safe_Out_Here_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:59" }, { "id": "620f3230-19ee-4782-b243-42fd971fcb52", "slug": "you-cannot-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/you-cannot-you", "text": "You cannot, you must not, judge the past by the present; you must try to see it in its own terms and values, if you are to have any inkling of it. You may not like what you see, but do not on that account fall into the error of trying to adjust it to suit your own vision of what it ought to have been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George MacDonald Fraser", "slug": "george-macdonald-fraser", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser" }, "book": { "title": "Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma", "slug": "quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "judging others", "slug": "judging-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/judging-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_MacDonald_Fraser#Quartered_Safe_Out_Here_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:59" }, { "id": "ab014042-f6e2-49a1-88bf-a9602e6476b0", "slug": "in-one-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jaroslav-kalfar/spaceman-of-bohemia/in-one-book", "text": "In one book, your father is a hero. In another book, he is a monster. The men who don’t have books written about them have it easier.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jaroslav Kalfar", "slug": "jaroslav-kalfar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jaroslav-kalfar" }, "book": { "title": "Spaceman of Bohemia", "slug": "spaceman-of-bohemia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jaroslav-kalfar/spaceman-of-bohemia" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 65, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jaroslav_Kalfa%C5%99#Spaceman_of_Bohemia_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:55" }, { "id": "82427627-8426-469d-8a7f-5c3c1dd47fc8", "slug": "those-who-ignore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-fall-of-hyperion/those-who-ignore", "text": "Those who ignore history’s lessons in the ultimate folly of war are forced to do more than relive them...they may be forced to die by them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dan Simmons", "slug": "dan-simmons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons" }, "book": { "title": "The Fall of Hyperion", "slug": "the-fall-of-hyperion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-fall-of-hyperion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons#The_Fall_of_Hyperion_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:52" }, { "id": "757fd5b6-ac72-456c-b158-472d601edfe5", "slug": "you-row-forward", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit/hope-in-the-dark/you-row-forward", "text": "You row forward looking back, and telling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future. We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war chant of our victories. The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rebecca Solnit", "slug": "rebecca-solnit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit" }, "book": { "title": "Hope In The Dark", "slug": "hope-in-the-dark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit/hope-in-the-dark" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rebecca_Solnit#Forward_to_3rd_edition_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:51" }, { "id": "1a8b1c77-b570-4ba9-a1f0-1127f587fb45", "slug": "cause-and-effect-assumes-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit/hope-in-the-dark/cause-and-effect-assumes-history", "text": "Cause-and-effect assumes history marches forward, but history is not an army. It is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension. Sometimes one person inspires a movement, or her words do decades later, sometimes a few passionate people change the world; sometimes they start a mass movement and millions do; sometimes those millions are stirred by the same outrage or the same ideal, and change comes upon us like a change of weather. All that these transformations have in common is that they begin in the imagination, in hope. To hope is to gamble. It's to bet on the future, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk. (p4)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rebecca Solnit", "slug": "rebecca-solnit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit" }, "book": { "title": "Hope In The Dark", "slug": "hope-in-the-dark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rebecca-solnit/hope-in-the-dark" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rebecca_Solnit#Hope_in_the_Dark:_The_Untold_History_of_People_Power_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:51" }, { "id": "59e760d5-1cf9-426d-85ba-2d2e9f7f1d3d", "slug": "calcutta-has-still", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/calcutta/calcutta-has-still", "text": "‘Calcutta has still not recovered from history: people mourn the past, and abhor it deeply.’", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amit Chaudhuri", "slug": "amit-chaudhuri", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri" }, "book": { "title": "Calcutta", "slug": "calcutta", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/calcutta" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amit_Chaudhuri#Calcutta:_Two_Years_in_The_City_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:36" }, { "id": "50bd79cc-bfcf-4300-9af0-123497c7f79f", "slug": "each-view-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/friend-of-my-youth/each-view-has", "text": "Each view has a history. You sense you're where others have been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amit Chaudhuri", "slug": "amit-chaudhuri", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri" }, "book": { "title": "Friend of My Youth", "slug": "friend-of-my-youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/friend-of-my-youth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amit_Chaudhuri#Friend_of_My_Youth_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:35" }, { "id": "3d240d57-4150-4990-a95b-e02ab949c0f1", "slug": "history-is-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/friend-of-my-youth/history-is-always", "text": "History is always lying before you, unnoticed: till you suddenly see it, as we do now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amit Chaudhuri", "slug": "amit-chaudhuri", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri" }, "book": { "title": "Friend of My Youth", "slug": "friend-of-my-youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/friend-of-my-youth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amit_Chaudhuri#Friend_of_My_Youth_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:35" }, { "id": "e0bb4835-bc98-4584-a3fe-ae0ccaea96f6", "slug": "as-a-historian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian/as-a-historian", "text": "As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claw.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Elizabeth Kostova", "slug": "elizabeth-kostova", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova" }, "book": { "title": "The Historian", "slug": "the-historian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Kostova#The_Historian_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:28" }, { "id": "44f11835-e734-437e-9088-95027f8fef2f", "slug": "ive-always-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian/ive-always-been", "text": "I’ve always been interested in foreign relations. It’s my belief that the study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present, rather than an escape from it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Elizabeth Kostova", "slug": "elizabeth-kostova", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova" }, "book": { "title": "The Historian", "slug": "the-historian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Kostova#The_Historian_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:28" }, { "id": "01bc9ab4-db60-48ca-afcc-4e4f37f6639c", "slug": "lifes-better-sounder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian/lifes-better-sounder", "text": "Life’s better, sounder, when we don’t brood unnecessarily on horrors. As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Elizabeth Kostova", "slug": "elizabeth-kostova", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova" }, "book": { "title": "The Historian", "slug": "the-historian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-kostova/the-historian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Kostova#The_Historian_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:28" }, { "id": "57dc9148-72fa-44b7-a5d1-17b18b0572f0", "slug": "w-hy-study-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/w-hy-study-history", "text": "[W]hy study history? ...[It] is not a means of making accurate predictions. We study history... to widen... horizons, to understand that our present... is... [not] inevitable, and that we... have many more possibilities before us...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Yuval Noah Harari", "slug": "yuval-noah-harari", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari" }, "book": { "title": "Sapiens", "slug": "sapiens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari#Chapter_13:_%22The_Secret_of_Success%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:13" }, { "id": "fe520328-dd1b-4a0b-a676-6b4ec46683fd", "slug": "we-truly-to-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-hope-hodgson/the-night-land/we-truly-to-think", "text": "We truly to think that the world doth even now be old; and this to have seemed a true thing unto every age that ever did live.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Hope Hodgson", "slug": "william-hope-hodgson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-hope-hodgson" }, "book": { "title": "The Night Land", "slug": "the-night-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-hope-hodgson/the-night-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hope_Hodgson#The_Night_Land_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:09" }, { "id": "aea940d9-99ca-463c-aa6f-8d566bd0d1dc", "slug": "dont-you-find", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age/dont-you-find", "text": "Don't you find it peculiar? The human conviction that we are the heirs of history instead of paragraphs that are almost over. A survival mechanism, no doubt.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pierce Brown", "slug": "pierce-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Dark Age", "slug": "dark-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierce_Brown#Dark_Age_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:00" }, { "id": "e1353882-9ecf-477b-8892-860e89c78de5", "slug": "my-point-is-theres", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/sea-of-tranquility/my-point-is-theres", "text": "My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emily St John Mandel", "slug": "emily-st-john-mandel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel" }, "book": { "title": "Sea of Tranquility", "slug": "sea-of-tranquility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/sea-of-tranquility" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 189, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the end of the world", "slug": "the-end-of-the-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-end-of-the-world" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emily_St._John_Mandel#Sea_of_Tranquility_(2022)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:51" }, { "id": "d316c0e3-3202-4ef6-aafa-3d2946f57ea3", "slug": "in-history-obedience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-mangabeira-unger/the-left-alternative/in-history-obedience", "text": "In history obedience rarely pays; what pays is defiance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Roberto Mangabeira Unger", "slug": "roberto-mangabeira-unger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-mangabeira-unger" }, "book": { "title": "The Left Alternative", "slug": "the-left-alternative", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-mangabeira-unger/the-left-alternative" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "rebellion", "slug": "rebellion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion" }, { "name": "obedience", "slug": "obedience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obedience" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roberto_Mangabeira_Unger#The_Left_Alternative_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:48" }, { "id": "d4314615-cacc-4427-ba6b-4597a3bd2e64", "slug": "historys-a-stopped", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake/historys-a-stopped", "text": "“History’s a stopped clock,” Eunice said. “It’s nice to look at, but there’s only so much you can tell you.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Poseidon's Wake", "slug": "poseidons-wake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 280, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Poseidon's_Wake_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:42" }, { "id": "0e885ba1-4489-4df7-a8f3-5778f6aa2e3e", "slug": "could-be-worse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/on-the-steel-breeze/could-be-worse", "text": "“Could be worse, as they say.”\n\n“That’s the sum story of human history, isn’t it? Could be worse. As if that’s the very best that we can manage.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "On the Steel Breeze", "slug": "on-the-steel-breeze", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/on-the-steel-breeze" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 527, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#On_the_Steel_Breeze_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:42" }, { "id": "fba97774-89f3-4a95-adeb-c2cd69a45878", "slug": "civilisations-beyond-number", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/house-of-suns/civilisations-beyond-number", "text": "Civilisations beyond number had risen from obscurity, considering themselves masters of all creation, before fading back into the footnotes of history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "House of Suns", "slug": "house-of-suns", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/house-of-suns" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 152, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#House_of_Suns_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:40" }, { "id": "bc71d927-ab63-4098-a11d-1a0a806fc113", "slug": "by-and-large", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/by-and-large", "text": "By and large these attempts to rewrite history were not taken seriously, but it was disconcerting to hear that they had gained even a toehold.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Chasm City", "slug": "chasm-city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 490, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Chasm_City_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:38" }, { "id": "d27b715e-a515-4fac-9cbf-3b9c7611f1b8", "slug": "it-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/it-was-the", "text": "It was the wrong approach. But it was the only way we—they—could see at the time. So we mustn’t mock them for their mistakes. In two hundred years, someone will be just as quick to mock us for ours, if we’re not careful.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond the Aquila Rift", "slug": "beyond-the-aquila-rift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 735, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Beyond_the_Aquila_Rift_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:37" }, { "id": "75e32d02-49ee-4928-8fe8-9bb8c56c2721", "slug": "moments-of-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/postwar/moments-of-great", "text": "Moments of great cultural significance are often appreciated only in retrospect. The Sixties were different: the transcendent importance contemporaries attached to their own times—and their own selves—was one of the special features of the age.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tony Judt", "slug": "tony-judt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt" }, "book": { "title": "Postwar", "slug": "postwar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/postwar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Postwar:_A_History_of_Europe_Since_1945_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:30" }, { "id": "45596844-9c41-4f0f-a195-fee1d39908aa", "slug": "europe-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/postwar/europe-is-not", "text": "Europe is not re-entering its troubled wartime past—on the contrary, it is leaving it. Germany today, like the rest of Europe, is more conscious of its twentieth-century history than at any time in the past fifty years. But this does not mean that it is being drawn back into it. For that history never went away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tony Judt", "slug": "tony-judt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt" }, "book": { "title": "Postwar", "slug": "postwar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/postwar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Postwar:_A_History_of_Europe_Since_1945_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:30" }, { "id": "dfe875cd-4ab5-4c93-8ea9-66fc15edad6f", "slug": "actually-each-generation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gordon-r-dickson/necromancer/actually-each-generation", "text": "Actually, each generation likes to think of itself as at the pivot point in history, that in its time the great decision is made which puts man either on the true road or the false. But things aren’t really that serious. Truthfully, the way of mankind is too massive to be kinked, suddenly; it only changes direction in a long and gradual bend over many generations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gordon R. Dickson", "slug": "gordon-r-dickson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gordon-r-dickson" }, "book": { "title": "Necromancer", "slug": "necromancer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gordon-r-dickson/necromancer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 142, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gordon_R._Dickson#Necromancer_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:27" }, { "id": "d79c76c0-ec8f-425a-a499-ac211d8fcc05", "slug": "a-mistake-constantly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man/a-mistake-constantly", "text": "A mistake constantly made by those who should know better is to judge people of the past by our standards rather than their own. The only way men or women can be judged is against the canvas of their own time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Louis L’Amour", "slug": "louis-lamour", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour" }, "book": { "title": "Education of a Wandering Man", "slug": "education-of-a-wandering-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_L'Amour#Education_of_a_Wandering_Man_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:16" }, { "id": "cfd88ee6-6b32-42fe-8d51-467dec5ae4ac", "slug": "musical-instruments-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-levitin/this-is-your-brain-on-music/musical-instruments-are", "text": "Musical instruments are among the oldest human-made artifacts we have found. ...Music predates agriculture in the history of our species.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Levitin", "slug": "daniel-levitin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-levitin" }, "book": { "title": "This Is Your Brain on Music", "slug": "this-is-your-brain-on-music", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-levitin/this-is-your-brain-on-music" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "music", "slug": "music", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Levitin#This_is_Your_Brain_on_Music_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:10" }, { "id": "da94b8c2-0976-401b-b477-26b3893dd8ab", "slug": "most-people-go-through", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/the-traveler/most-people-go-through", "text": "Most people go through life never knowing the truth about the major events of their time. They're watching a farce performed at the edge of the stage while the real drama is going on behind the curtain.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Twelve Hawks", "slug": "john-twelve-hawks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks" }, "book": { "title": "The Traveler", "slug": "the-traveler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/the-traveler" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Twelve_Hawks#The_Traveler_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:59" }, { "id": "ab402357-32b5-4cc9-8f86-00b846c94952", "slug": "half-the-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/the-traveler/half-the-things", "text": "Half the things you've been taught in school are just convenient fictions. History is a puppet show for childish minds.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Twelve Hawks", "slug": "john-twelve-hawks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks" }, "book": { "title": "The Traveler", "slug": "the-traveler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/the-traveler" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Twelve_Hawks#The_Traveler_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:59" }, { "id": "dc867fa7-074e-4df5-a344-4e9fb2210999", "slug": "like-fish-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea/like-fish-who", "text": "Like fish who do not know they swim in water, we are seldom aware of the atmosphere of the times through which we move, how strange and singular they are. But when we approach another age, its alienness stands out before us, almost as if that were its most obvious quality...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Cahill", "slug": "thomas-cahill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill" }, "book": { "title": "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea", "slug": "sailing-the-wine-dark-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#Sailing_the_Wine-Dark_Sea:_Why_the_Greeks_Matter_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:41" }, { "id": "685d4d53-5db6-4f0e-81f9-a9ba91a1f3b8", "slug": "whatever-we-experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea/whatever-we-experience", "text": "Whatever we experience in our day, whatever we hope to learn, whatever we most desire, whatever we set out to find, we see that the Greeks have been there before us, and we meet them on their way back.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Cahill", "slug": "thomas-cahill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill" }, "book": { "title": "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea", "slug": "sailing-the-wine-dark-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#Sailing_the_Wine-Dark_Sea:_Why_the_Greeks_Matter_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:41" }, { "id": "60758e72-b64c-4a4e-95b7-59780ab0e266", "slug": "for-me-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea/for-me-the", "text": "For me, the historian's principal task should be to raise the dead to life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Cahill", "slug": "thomas-cahill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill" }, "book": { "title": "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea", "slug": "sailing-the-wine-dark-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/sailing-the-wine-dark-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#Sailing_the_Wine-Dark_Sea:_Why_the_Greeks_Matter_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:41" }, { "id": "1b37ec7e-a469-4dba-956b-15258372671d", "slug": "ireland-is-unique", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/ireland-is-unique", "text": "Ireland is unique in religious history for being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Cahill", "slug": "thomas-cahill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill" }, "book": { "title": "How the Irish Saved Civilization", "slug": "how-the-irish-saved-civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#How_the_Irish_Saved_Civilization_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:40" }, { "id": "2e74489c-29f9-43ec-8ccc-1e0b7a853ab0", "slug": "science-and-technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney/how-europe-underdeveloped-africa/science-and-technology", "text": "Science and technology derive from the effort to understand and control the natural environment. Familiarity with the history of science is essential to an awareness of the development of society.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Rodney", "slug": "walter-rodney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney" }, "book": { "title": "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa", "slug": "how-europe-underdeveloped-africa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-rodney/how-europe-underdeveloped-africa" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Rodney#How_Europe_Underdeveloped_Africa_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:34" }, { "id": "50e9343a-c48b-415b-a990-3242503c608d", "slug": "ingenuity-knowledge-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill/plagues-and-peoples/ingenuity-knowledge-and", "text": "Ingenuity, knowledge, and organization alter but cannot cancel humanity's vulnerability to invasion by parasitic forms of life. Infectious disease which antedated the emergence of humankind will last as long as humanity itself, and will surely remain, as it has been hitherto, one of the fundamental parameters and determinants of human history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William H. McNeill", "slug": "william-h-mcneill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill" }, "book": { "title": "Plagues and Peoples", "slug": "plagues-and-peoples", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill/plagues-and-peoples" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_H._McNeill#Plagues_and_Peoples_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:27" }, { "id": "03879c1b-f252-4905-a6ef-59f92390c262", "slug": "all-this-long", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/all-this-long", "text": "All this long human story, most passionate and tragic in the living, was but an unimportant, a seemingly barren and negligible effort, lasting only for a few moments in the life of the galaxy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olaf Stapledon", "slug": "olaf-stapledon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon" }, "book": { "title": "Star Maker", "slug": "star-maker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon#Star_Maker_(1937)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:18" }, { "id": "3d573d62-8c41-46d7-9880-993fef74e84e", "slug": "i-perceived-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/i-perceived-that", "text": "I perceived that I was on a little round grain of rock and metal, filmed with water and with air, whirling in sunlight and darkness. And on the skin of that little grain all the swarms of men, generation by generation, had lived in labour and blindness, with intermittent joy and intermittent lucidity of spirit. And all their history, with its folk-wanderings, its empires, its philosophies, its proud sciences, its social revolutions, its increasing hunger for community, was but a flicker in one day of the lives of the stars.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olaf Stapledon", "slug": "olaf-stapledon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon" }, "book": { "title": "Star Maker", "slug": "star-maker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 11, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon#Star_Maker_(1937)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:17" }, { "id": "9b1b02c8-6b0f-44cf-9f89-3e878b2088d1", "slug": "for-better-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/empire/for-better-for", "text": "For better, for worse – fair and foul – the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain’s age of Empire. The question is not whether British imperialism was without a blemish. It was not. The question is whether there could have been a less bloody path to modernity. Perhaps in theory there could have been. But in practice?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Niall Ferguson", "slug": "niall-ferguson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson" }, "book": { "title": "Empire", "slug": "empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson#Empire:_How_Britain_Made_the_Modern_World_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:02" }, { "id": "729c7faf-db42-41c1-9d72-acd3de3fd9c4", "slug": "the-powers-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead/the-powers-who", "text": "The powers who controlled the United States didn't want the people to know their history. If the people knew their history, they would realize they must rise up. (Part Three, Book Two: Arizona)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leslie Marmon Silko", "slug": "leslie-marmon-silko", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko" }, "book": { "title": "Almanac of the Dead", "slug": "almanac-of-the-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leslie_Marmon_Silko#Almanac_of_the_Dead_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:00" }, { "id": "b4653975-3929-47cf-adf7-227e019af9d7", "slug": "past-a-certain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons/past-a-certain", "text": "Past a certain point, all the dates grow hazy and confused, and the clarity of history becomes the fog of legend.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Dance with Dragons", "slug": "a-dance-with-dragons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Dance_with_Dragons_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:55" }, { "id": "a8104142-7744-43f6-b3e0-6018390193d7", "slug": "the-past-remains", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons/the-past-remains", "text": "The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Dance with Dragons", "slug": "a-dance-with-dragons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Dance_with_Dragons_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:55" }, { "id": "5fcc6355-528d-4971-b156-21b3fbe8772d", "slug": "so-long-as-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons/so-long-as-men", "text": "So long as men remember the wrongs done to their forebears, no peace will ever exist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Dance with Dragons", "slug": "a-dance-with-dragons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "peace", "slug": "peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace" }, { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Dance_with_Dragons_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:55" }, { "id": "c8c7740f-35cb-4820-acde-20a952082cc4", "slug": "i-prefer-my-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows/i-prefer-my-history", "text": "I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Feast for Crows", "slug": "a-feast-for-crows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Feast_for_Crows_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:53" }, { "id": "6c72d7d2-d585-42ee-b830-a41d37cd42c0", "slug": "archmaester-rigney-once", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows/archmaester-rigney-once", "text": "Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Feast for Crows", "slug": "a-feast-for-crows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Feast_for_Crows_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:53" }, { "id": "86f2a058-dade-4557-9d9f-a98c633d15ca", "slug": "a-second-slash", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/the-wine-of-violence/a-second-slash", "text": "A second slash ended the monster’s misery. So, he thought, this is how my Earthling ancestors ran their affairs. This is how lands were won, empires expanded, insurrections resisted, prisoners taken, slaves kept, heretics converted, captives made loquacious. For the first time in his life, Minnix felt himself a part of history.\n\nHistory, he decided, was a terrible idea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Morrow", "slug": "james-morrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow" }, "book": { "title": "The Wine of Violence", "slug": "the-wine-of-violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/the-wine-of-violence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 223, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_K._Morrow#The_Wine_of_Violence_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:27" }, { "id": "64a86515-8d67-4488-9c42-4ab580b337ca", "slug": "historians-whose-profession", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/historians-whose-profession", "text": "Historians whose profession is to study the past, are as wary as scientists of the idea that events unfold in a manner that can be predicted. In fact, in a study of history the illusion of inevitability has serious consequences that it is one of the few things that both conservative and socialist historians can agree on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 201, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "fccfee88-882c-4cc1-80fd-7cd94cb2afcb", "slug": "whats-the-point", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justina-robson/natural-history/whats-the-point", "text": "What’s the point of history, if it has nothing to say to the present?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Justina Robson", "slug": "justina-robson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justina-robson" }, "book": { "title": "Natural History", "slug": "natural-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justina-robson/natural-history" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 56, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Justina_Robson#Natural_History_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:21" }, { "id": "5553c3ab-b692-4666-b5cb-edcc23b22f64", "slug": "when-we-study", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-lyell/principles-of-geology/when-we-study", "text": "When we study history we obtain a more profound insight into human nature by instituting a comparison between the present and former states of society.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Lyell", "slug": "charles-lyell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-lyell" }, "book": { "title": "Principles of Geology", "slug": "principles-of-geology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-lyell/principles-of-geology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Lyell#Principles_of_Geology_(1832),_Vol._1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:20" }, { "id": "6b1e3f90-a9e8-42ba-bd1c-5851c418f788", "slug": "as-for-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/red-seas-under-red-skies/as-for-history", "text": "As for history, we are living in its ruins. And as for biographies, we are living with the consequences of all the decisions ever made in them. I tend not to read them for pleasure. It‘s not unlike carefully scrutinizing the map when one has already reached the destination.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Scott Lynch", "slug": "scott-lynch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch" }, "book": { "title": "Red Seas Under Red Skies", "slug": "red-seas-under-red-skies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/red-seas-under-red-skies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 100, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scott_Lynch#Red_Seas_Under_Red_Skies_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:18" }, { "id": "9e41da88-5516-49f8-a715-63a76719a706", "slug": "our-lethargic-modernity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-sloterdijk/critique-of-cynical-reason/our-lethargic-modernity", "text": "Our lethargic modernity certainly knows how to “think historically,” but it has long doubted that it lives in a meaningful history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter Sloterdijk", "slug": "peter-sloterdijk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-sloterdijk" }, "book": { "title": "Critique of Cynical Reason", "slug": "critique-of-cynical-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-sloterdijk/critique-of-cynical-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Sloterdijk#Critique_of_Cynical_Reason_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:17" }, { "id": "0c3ea165-f973-4c39-a12e-5a7f38bbc3de", "slug": "legends-should-stay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/the-dervish-house/legends-should-stay", "text": "Legends should stay legends; otherwise they just become history, when the natural course of things is the other way around, from history to legend.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian McDonald", "slug": "ian-mcdonald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald" }, "book": { "title": "The Dervish House", "slug": "the-dervish-house", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/the-dervish-house" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_McDonald#The_Dervish_House_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:16" }, { "id": "94cb67ef-66d5-4ec8-a514-ce0c5fa50699", "slug": "she-had-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/she-had-not", "text": "She had not won a clean victory. Tinkering with time and history offended her political sensibilities. History was written in the stones. It was not a numinous thing to be tossed sparkling in the air to lie where it fell. She did not like to think of her life and world as a mere mutability of potentials.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian McDonald", "slug": "ian-mcdonald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald" }, "book": { "title": "Desolation Road", "slug": "desolation-road", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 327, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_McDonald#Desolation_Road_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:15" }, { "id": "28d89ef1-017a-48f0-91e4-696b101fb2ef", "slug": "i-would-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch/i-would-never", "text": "I would never save her. I looked at the woman mopping up the tea, and it came to me that I could not save her either. Enola or the cat or any of them, lost here in the endless stairways and cul-de-sacs of time. They were already dead a hundred years, past saving. The past is beyond saving. Surely that was the lesson the history department sent me all this way to learn. Well, fine, I’ve learned it. Can I go home now?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Connie Willis", "slug": "connie-willis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis" }, "book": { "title": "Fire Watch", "slug": "fire-watch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Connie_Willis#Fire_Watch_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:10" }, { "id": "a3e6c7ff-165a-4b81-a2f5-47667acee2f3", "slug": "but-then-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/all-fools-day/but-then-history", "text": "But then history was made by fools.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "All Fools’ Day", "slug": "all-fools-day", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/all-fools-day" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#All_Fools'_Day_(1966)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:59" }, { "id": "433a02e0-785c-4057-8a23-565946a184d5", "slug": "the-historical-picture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ha-joon-chang/bad-samaritans/the-historical-picture", "text": "The historical picture is clear. ing was not invented in modern Asia. When they were backward themselves in terms of knowledge, all of today's rich countries blithely violated other people's patents, s and copyrights. The Swiss 'borrowed' German chemical inventions, while the Germans 'borrowed' English trademarks and the 'borrowed' British copyrighted materials—all without paying what would today be considered 'just' compensation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ha-Joon Chang", "slug": "ha-joon-chang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ha-joon-chang" }, "book": { "title": "Bad Samaritans", "slug": "bad-samaritans", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ha-joon-chang/bad-samaritans" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 134, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ha-Joon_Chang#Bad_Samaritans:_The_Myth_of_Free_Trade_and_the_Secret_History_of_Capitalism_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:57" }, { "id": "8e798027-71ab-4c06-9c9c-b7e5c5146055", "slug": "well-aware-of-both", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lewis-lapham/waiting-for-the-barbarians/well-aware-of-both", "text": "Well aware of both the continuity and contingency of human affairs, Adams and Madison searched the works of Tacitus and Voltaire and Locke like carpenters rummaging through their assortment of tools, knowing that all the pediments were jury-rigged, all the provisional, all the alliances temporary.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lewis Lapham", "slug": "lewis-lapham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lewis-lapham" }, "book": { "title": "Waiting for the Barbarians", "slug": "waiting-for-the-barbarians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lewis-lapham/waiting-for-the-barbarians" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 64, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_H._Lapham#Waiting_For_The_Barbarians_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:46" }, { "id": "0b365b06-bf03-4c86-bf81-fd4c0a26d031", "slug": "the-agony-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver/the-agony-of-the", "text": "The agony of the fractured leg began to seem no more than a mild discomfort as The Giver led Jonas firmly, little by little, in the deep and terrible suffering of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lois Lowry", "slug": "lois-lowry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry" }, "book": { "title": "The Giver", "slug": "the-giver", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 110, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Giver#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:43" }, { "id": "be319793-0687-463a-ad86-58e484020a2b", "slug": "youll-remember-i-told", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish/black-easter/youll-remember-i-told", "text": "You’ll remember I told you I was interested in the history of science. That involves trying to understand why there wasn’t any science for so long, and why it went into eclipse almost every time it was rediscovered. I think I know why now. I think the human mind goes through a sort of cycle of fear. It can only take so much accumulated knowledge, and then it panics, and starts inventing reasons to throw everything over and go back to a Dark Age…every time with a new, invented mystical reason.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Blish", "slug": "james-blish", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish" }, "book": { "title": "Black Easter", "slug": "black-easter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish/black-easter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 155, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Blish#Black_Easter_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:35" }, { "id": "c879ab13-5a85-4653-95f5-f54dc1fd973d", "slug": "its-easy-to-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/its-easy-to-think", "text": "It’s easy to think that as a result of the extinction of the dodo, we are now sadder and wiser, but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "Last Chance to See", "slug": "last-chance-to-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 205, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See#Chapter_6:_Rare,_or_Medium_Rare%3F", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:30" }, { "id": "de4db367-9c77-44de-a5ac-316e254232d5", "slug": "it-may-strike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-l-heilbroner/the-worldly-philosophers/it-may-strike", "text": "It may strike us as odd that the idea of gain is a relatively modern one; we are schooled to believe that man is essentially an acquisitive creature and that left to himself he will behave as any self-respecting businessman would. The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.\n\nNothing could be further from the truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert L. Heilbroner", "slug": "robert-l-heilbroner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-l-heilbroner" }, "book": { "title": "The Worldly Philosophers", "slug": "the-worldly-philosophers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-l-heilbroner/the-worldly-philosophers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 15, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Heilbroner#The_Worldly_Philosophers_(1953)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:15" }, { "id": "2a5ced81-30c1-4c5d-854e-36a7f4aa7471", "slug": "history-repeats-itself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edwin-lefevre/reminiscences-of-a-stock-operator/history-repeats-itself", "text": "History repeats itself all the time on Wall Street.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edwin Lefèvre", "slug": "edwin-lefevre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edwin-lefevre" }, "book": { "title": "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator", "slug": "reminiscences-of-a-stock-operator", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edwin-lefevre/reminiscences-of-a-stock-operator" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_Lef%C3%A8vre#Reminiscences_of_a_Stock_Operator_(1923)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:14" }, { "id": "f1717797-ddbd-4886-b9ab-e3dad0b4543f", "slug": "if-a-nation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei/ai-weiwei/if-a-nation", "text": "If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ai Weiwei", "slug": "ai-weiwei", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei" }, "book": { "title": "Ai Weiwei", "slug": "ai-weiwei", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei/ai-weiwei" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei#Ai_Weiwei:_%E2%80%98Shame_on_Me.%E2%80%99,_2011", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:06" }, { "id": "e10e23e9-8b40-49d8-a81e-f29ec60fe183", "slug": "well-kids-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey/well-kids-are", "text": "Well, kids are never much on history. Nor for that matter was anybody else. It had been MacAllister’s experience that most people think anything that happened before they were born didn’t count for a whole lot.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Mcdevitt", "slug": "jack-mcdevitt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt" }, "book": { "title": "Odyssey", "slug": "odyssey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 227, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_McDevitt#Odyssey_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:58" }, { "id": "bd3e3fb7-5144-489d-9385-9e5f9e902065", "slug": "perhaps-by-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/perhaps-by-this", "text": "Perhaps by this time the 14th century was not quite sane. If enlightened self-interest is the criterion of sanity, in the verdict of Michelet, “no epoch was more naturally mad.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "A Distant Mirror", "slug": "a-distant-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 332, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#A_Distant_Mirror_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:53" }, { "id": "8a544b9b-5692-491e-9143-cc148362c198", "slug": "in-the-midst", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/in-the-midst", "text": "In the midst of events there is no perspective.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "A Distant Mirror", "slug": "a-distant-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 454, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#A_Distant_Mirror_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:53" }, { "id": "eec45a07-d6c0-4c3b-b52c-f556d3782b01", "slug": "in-individuals-as-in-nations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/in-individuals-as-in-nations", "text": "In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "A Distant Mirror", "slug": "a-distant-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 210, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#A_Distant_Mirror_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:52" }, { "id": "ab741043-45c5-44ee-9557-2e8c309d72c9", "slug": "whatever-the-fiasco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china/whatever-the-fiasco", "text": "Whatever the fiasco, aplomb is unbroken. Mistakes, failures, stupidities and other causes of disaster mysteriously vanish. Disasters are recorded with care and pride and become transmuted into things of beauty. Official histories record every move in monumental and infinite detail but the details serve to obscure.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "Stilwell and the American Experience in China", "slug": "stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#Stilwell_and_the_American_Experience_in_China_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:52" }, { "id": "85f78fcb-0aef-40bb-a83f-591968a245f6", "slug": "survivors-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/survivors-of-the", "text": "Survivors of the plague, finding themselves neither destroyed nor improved, could discover no Divine purpose in the pain they had suffered. God’s purposes were usually mysterious, but this scourge had been too terrible to be accepted without questioning. If a disaster of such magnitude, the most lethal ever known, was a mere wanton act of God or perhaps not God’s work at all, then the absolutes of a fixed order were loosed from their moorings. Minds that opened to admit these questions could never again be shut. Once people envisioned the possibility of change in a fixed order, the end of an age of submission came in sight; the turn to individual conscience lay ahead. To that extent the Black Death may have been the unrecognized beginning of modern man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "A Distant Mirror", "slug": "a-distant-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 123, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#A_Distant_Mirror_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:52" }, { "id": "027471dc-6b75-434c-944b-8dd223660f41", "slug": "history-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china/history-is-the", "text": "History is the unfolding of miscalculations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "Stilwell and the American Experience in China", "slug": "stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/stilwell-and-the-american-experience-in-china" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 132, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#Stilwell_and_the_American_Experience_in_China_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:52" }, { "id": "cfbfecbd-1840-4cbc-b878-a04f87f7d276", "slug": "history-jacobs-spoke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/iron-council/history-jacobs-spoke", "text": "“History...” Jacobs spoke with terse authority. Brought Ori to a hush. “Is all full. And dripping. With the corpses. Of them who trusted the incorruptible.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "China Miéville", "slug": "china-mieville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville" }, "book": { "title": "Iron Council", "slug": "iron-council", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/iron-council" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 319, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "naivety", "slug": "naivety", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/naivety" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/China_Mi%C3%A9ville#Iron_Council_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:50" }, { "id": "1f4b1bc7-5fe9-40df-8612-193fd0f2550d", "slug": "history-does-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/there-will-be-time/history-does-not", "text": "History does not tend to the better, Doc, it does not, it does not. We imagine so because events have produced our glorious selves. Think, however. Put aside the romantic legends and look at the facts. The average Frenchman in 1800 was no more unfree than the average Englishman. The French Empire could have brought Europe together, and could have been liberalized from within, and there might have been no World War I in which Western civilization cut its own throat. Because that’s what’s happened, you know. We’re still busy bleeding to death, but we haven’t far to go now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "There Will Be Time", "slug": "there-will-be-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/there-will-be-time" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 50, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#There_Will_Be_Time_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:46" }, { "id": "a33802e4-ebf2-424b-b59e-53011aa1c873", "slug": "it-sounds-rather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-long-way-home/it-sounds-rather", "text": "It sounds rather silly, doesn’t it? One little man thinking he can change history all by his lonesome. A lot of trouble has been caused by that delusion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Long Way Home", "slug": "the-long-way-home", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-long-way-home" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 219, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Long_Way_Home_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:43" }, { "id": "757c0f4f-45db-4aba-908d-d5adf3fdcf17", "slug": "the-best-indication", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer/the-best-indication", "text": "The best indication of what human beings will do is not what they think, but what the record says similar groups have done in the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Oathbringer", "slug": "oathbringer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 976, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Oathbringer_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:39" }, { "id": "6959fa9d-7c9f-48dd-8699-a1a933c2948d", "slug": "honor-is-a-word", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance/honor-is-a-word", "text": "“‘Honor’ is a word applied to the actions of men from the past who have had their lives scrubbed clean by historians.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Words of Radiance", "slug": "words-of-radiance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 927, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "honour", "slug": "honour", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Words_of_Radiance_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:37" }, { "id": "e68c81cf-2738-4f3c-bece-4a33c74a2538", "slug": "im-a-veristitalian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings/im-a-veristitalian", "text": "“I’m a Veristitalian,” Jasnah said. “We search for answers in the past, reconstructing what truly happened. To many, writing a history is not about truth, but about presenting the most flattering picture of themselves and their motives. My sisters and I choose projects that we feel were misunderstood or misrepresented, and in studying them hope to better understand the present.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Way of Kings", "slug": "the-way-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 630, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#The_Way_of_Kings_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:35" }, { "id": "f74cc7d3-55ca-4fcc-a5af-7b0bd5db08c9", "slug": "how-does-it-feel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/how-does-it-feel", "text": "“How does it feel to have just changed the course of history?”\n\n“I don’t know what you mean,” said the navigator. “To my way of thinking, by the time history happens I’m going to be dead.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "4909d962-a3fb-4a1c-b80c-80ae4a24c48e", "slug": "papa-hegel-he-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/papa-hegel-he-say", "text": "Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I know people who can't even learn from what happened this morning. Hegel must have been taking the long view.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "4529bd96-7cd7-4ce1-b183-9abf330d1f20", "slug": "more-historys-made", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth/the-sot-weed-factor/more-historys-made", "text": "More history's made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills, and proclamations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Barth", "slug": "john-barth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth" }, "book": { "title": "The Sot-Weed Factor", "slug": "the-sot-weed-factor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-barth/the-sot-weed-factor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Barth#The_Sot-Weed_Factor_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:04" }, { "id": "a04c51c6-eb6b-4355-af9b-47f49fa00662", "slug": "before-a-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/before-a-culture", "text": "Before a culture adopts the use of writing, when its knowledge is transmitted exclusively through oral means, it can very easily revise its history. It’s not intentional, but it is inevitable; throughout the world, bards and griots have adapted their material to their audiences and thus gradually adjusted the past to suit the needs of the present. The idea that accounts of the past shouldn’t change is a product of literate cultures’ reverence for the written word. Anthropologists will tell you that oral cultures understand the past differently; for them, their histories don’t need to be accurate so much as they need to validate the community’s understanding of itself. So it wouldn’t be correct to say that their histories are unreliable; their histories do what they need to do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ted Chiang", "slug": "ted-chiang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang" }, "book": { "title": "Exhalation", "slug": "exhalation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 226, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang#Exhalation:_Stories_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:58" }, { "id": "9d68c6cb-fdc8-425f-9c98-1ab61aabc102", "slug": "every-generation-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/there-was-a-country/every-generation-must", "text": "Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chinua Achebe", "slug": "chinua-achebe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe" }, "book": { "title": "There Was a Country", "slug": "there-was-a-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/there-was-a-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#There_Was_a_Country:_A_Personal_History_of_Biafra_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:57" }, { "id": "0a7bd857-ab3f-4d54-a835-772feafa99e8", "slug": "i-know-it-seems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet/i-know-it-seems", "text": "I know it seems incredible, that already some of the younger men are beginning to doubt the greatness of the Change our world has undergone, but read — read the newspapers of that time. Every age becomes mitigated and a little ennobled in our minds as it recedes into the past. It is the part of those who like myself have stories of that time as well, to supply, by a scrupulous spiritual realism, some antidote to that glamour.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "H.G. Wells", "slug": "hg-wells", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells" }, "book": { "title": "In the Days of the Comet", "slug": "in-the-days-of-the-comet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/In_the_Days_of_the_Comet#Dust_in_the_Shadows", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:54" }, { "id": "aa99fe1a-d4a9-45fb-9f30-749568674e4f", "slug": "the-certainties-of-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney/religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism/the-certainties-of-one", "text": "The certainties of one age are the problems of the next.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "R. H. Tawney", "slug": "r-h-tawney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney" }, "book": { "title": "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism", "slug": "religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney/religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "beliefs", "slug": "beliefs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._H._Tawney#Religion_and_the_Rise_of_Capitalism_(1926)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "82f375f5-aae6-4ed7-b728-33169b9c2053", "slug": "the-purpose-of-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/the-purpose-of-history", "text": "The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us why the things we value are the things we should value. And it tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 480, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "6db11d7a-2f7e-4256-994d-2e8748bb4a8b", "slug": "he-had-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/he-had-only", "text": "He had only imagined a slower fighting style from an unconscious assumption that man in the past were weaker or slower or less imaginative than he was, as a modern man.\n\nMarek knew this assumption of superiority was a difficulty faced by every historian. He just hadn’t thought he was guilty of it.\n\nBut clearly, he was.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 231, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "696d14db-a230-4df2-8cf9-a1d6be496165", "slug": "he-had-a-term", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/he-had-a-term", "text": "He had a term for people like this: temporal provincials—people who were ignorant of the past, and proud of it.\n\nTemporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 84, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ignorance", "slug": "ignorance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "51f27b7e-aada-44af-8145-505f54729487", "slug": "but-in-theory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/but-in-theory", "text": "“But in theory…”\n\n“When we are dealing with history, theories are worthless,” Doniger said with a contemptuous wave. “A theory is only valuable if it has the ability to predict future outcomes. But history is the record of human action—and no theory can predict human action.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 173, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "1938cb8e-d4e0-4f1d-8ee9-26721ac489fb", "slug": "the-so-called-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/the-so-called-time", "text": "“The so-called time paradoxes,” Doniger said, “do not really involve time. They involve ideas about history that are seductive but wrong. Seductive, because they flatter you into thinking you can have an impact on the course of events. And wrong, because of course, you can’t.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 171, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "06f17694-8cec-494a-bf21-082b2fb28ea5", "slug": "professor-johnston-often", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/professor-johnston-often", "text": "Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "Timeline", "slug": "timeline", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 85, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Timeline_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "437cdd11-50dd-46b1-8e6a-bf9fad2707d9", "slug": "but-they-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/quicksilver/but-they-had", "text": "\"But they had, perversely, been living among people who were peering into the wrong end of the telescope, or something, and who had convinced themselves that the opposite was true--that the world had once been a splendid, orderly place--that men had made a reasonably trouble-free move from the Garden of Eden to the Athens of Plato and Aristotle, stopping over in the Holy Land to encrypt the secrets of the Universe in the pages of the Bible, and that everything had been slowly, relentlessly falling apart ever since.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neal Stephenson", "slug": "neal-stephenson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson" }, "book": { "title": "Quicksilver", "slug": "quicksilver", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/quicksilver" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle#Book_One:_Quicksilver", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:31" }, { "id": "26ddedb1-e6aa-41de-9d56-887402d120a0", "slug": "funny-that-i-should", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place/funny-that-i-should", "text": "Funny that I should become such a great believer in justice. I always used to open my history courses by telling the students that if they expected to hear a series of movie scenarios, with the good guys winning in the end, they might as well all go home because not only didn’t the good guys win, but there weren’t any good guys.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter S. Beagle", "slug": "peter-s-beagle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle" }, "book": { "title": "A Fine and Private Place", "slug": "a-fine-and-private-place", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 206, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle#A_Fine_and_Private_Place_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:31" }, { "id": "d83b7f1a-d6e9-413b-829e-db2e7bfe587a", "slug": "how-can-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/how-can-you", "text": "“How can you shrug off history?”…\n\n“By studied neglect.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Infinity", "slug": "beyond-infinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 106, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Beyond_Infinity_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:25" }, { "id": "92dafc80-9369-44a5-a817-d93e17957488", "slug": "would-an-alien", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-sunborn/would-an-alien", "text": "Would an alien outsider judge America’s performance by My Lai and Wounded Knee or by Lincoln and Jefferson?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "The Sunborn", "slug": "the-sunborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-sunborn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 149, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" }, { "name": "judging others", "slug": "judging-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/judging-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#The_Sunborn_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:25" }, { "id": "21105b23-8e04-4b91-b1fc-9985a2f010ec", "slug": "history-held-counterexamples", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/history-held-counterexamples", "text": "History held counterexamples to any facile rule.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Infinity", "slug": "beyond-infinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 97, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Beyond_Infinity_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:25" }, { "id": "085dee3d-21cc-4fc1-bcd7-d3c58ddc39b4", "slug": "they-all-lived", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/they-all-lived", "text": "They all lived as ants in the shadow of mountains of millennia, and time’s sheer mass shaded every word.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Infinity", "slug": "beyond-infinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 97, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Beyond_Infinity_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:25" }, { "id": "fa81b0c6-8386-49ef-9c1c-215a31192325", "slug": "this-was-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact/this-was-what", "text": "This was what never failed to stir her—the unfathomable gulf between today’s thinking and the way the ancients thought. They were truly alien, not merely innocent agrarians with a foolish faith.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Artifact", "slug": "artifact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 246, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Artifact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:23" }, { "id": "63bf9172-c754-4a81-aac4-7f54656544cc", "slug": "archeology-is-mostly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact/archeology-is-mostly", "text": "Archeology is mostly a process of making associations between objects, and every discovery opens up possible resonances with things we already have. Sometimes, simply wandering through a museum or a site can open your eyes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Artifact", "slug": "artifact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 107, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Artifact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:23" }, { "id": "4f42fcc4-ba16-443a-9940-e95d51374cb1", "slug": "the-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact/the-past-was", "text": "The past was a jigsaw puzzle and you never had all the pieces.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Artifact", "slug": "artifact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 10, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Artifact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:22" }, { "id": "a903615c-a07d-4bdf-88ba-5bc93c02ff59", "slug": "as-kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh/as-kurt-vonnegut", "text": "As Kurt Vonnegut pointed out in his first novel, Player Piano, some people love problem-solving and tinkering—and that is the final, irreducible driver of human history. Wars and faiths and leaders come and go, but the problem-solvers’ slow, steady work is the fulcrum upon which history turns.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "In Alien Flesh", "slug": "in-alien-flesh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 104, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "creativity", "slug": "creativity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/creativity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#In_Alien_Flesh_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:21" }, { "id": "3a65ddc9-6ce9-4d60-8e78-40dbb6912eaf", "slug": "the-role-of-boredom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh/the-role-of-boredom", "text": "The role of boredom in human history is underrated.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "In Alien Flesh", "slug": "in-alien-flesh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 266, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "boredom", "slug": "boredom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#In_Alien_Flesh_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:21" }, { "id": "01db8c3c-47a5-4f24-b3e2-15bed73d25c7", "slug": "in-the-south", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi/in-the-south", "text": "In the South the war is what A.D. is elsewhere; they date from it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Twain", "slug": "mark-twain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain" }, "book": { "title": "Life on the Mississippi", "slug": "life-on-the-mississippi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life_on_the_Mississippi#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:21" }, { "id": "3305307a-2df7-4413-93f3-2c3416dcdd2a", "slug": "the-world-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi/the-world-and", "text": "The world and the books are so accustomed to use, and over-use, the word 'new' in connection with our country, that we early get and permanently retain the impression that there is nothing old about it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Twain", "slug": "mark-twain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain" }, "book": { "title": "Life on the Mississippi", "slug": "life-on-the-mississippi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life_on_the_Mississippi#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:20" }, { "id": "a6bf5d29-e6ea-40ea-be56-71727f1dc15d", "slug": "what-we-may", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-fukuyama/the-end-of-history-and-the-last-man/what-we-may", "text": "What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such … That is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Francis Fukuyama", "slug": "francis-fukuyama", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-fukuyama" }, "book": { "title": "The End of History and the Last Man", "slug": "the-end-of-history-and-the-last-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-fukuyama/the-end-of-history-and-the-last-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Fukuyama#The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:14" }, { "id": "5a6b667e-0971-423d-971c-62d10f8bcc17", "slug": "writing-the-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-bury/the-ancient-greek-historians/writing-the-history", "text": "Writing the history of the present is always a very different thing from writing the history of the distant past. The history of the distant past depends entirely on literary and documentary sources; the history of the present always involves unwritten material as well as documents. But the difference was much greater in the days of Thucydides than it is now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. Bury", "slug": "j-bury", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-bury" }, "book": { "title": "The Ancient Greek Historians", "slug": "the-ancient-greek-historians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-bury/the-ancient-greek-historians" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._Bury#The_Ancient_Greek_Historians_(1909)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:14" }, { "id": "22f73aae-a9df-472d-9de0-4d2decb62140", "slug": "every-period-in-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom/the-following-story/every-period-in-history", "text": "Every period in history has its own punishments, and ours has a multitude.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cees Nooteboom", "slug": "cees-nooteboom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom" }, "book": { "title": "The Following Story", "slug": "the-following-story", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom/the-following-story" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "punishment", "slug": "punishment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cees_Nooteboom#The_Following_Story_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:12" }, { "id": "5e5d52d7-c97f-4d78-86a5-90c3216c4acd", "slug": "the-collective-manifestations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-collective-manifestations", "text": "The collective manifestations of the insanity that lies at the heart of the human condition constitute the greater part of human history. It is to a large extent a history of madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:02" }, { "id": "0a1c4b51-49cc-4cc0-8e10-5a0f40f961e1", "slug": "if-the-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/if-the-history", "text": "If the history of humanity were the clinical case history of a single human being, the diagnosis would have to be: chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological propensity to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty against his perceived “enemies” – his own unconsciousness projected outward. Criminally insane, with a few brief lucid intervals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:02" }, { "id": "581cb0ea-b6bd-4c1c-8249-aa7d65b1bdbd", "slug": "myth-deprives-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/myth-deprives-the", "text": "Myth deprives the object of which it speaks of all history. In it, history evaporates.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Roland Barthes", "slug": "roland-barthes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes" }, "book": { "title": "Mythologies", "slug": "mythologies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 151, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ideology", "slug": "ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes#Mythologies_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:45" }, { "id": "011bcf26-381e-49f0-9b88-51779527a4f8", "slug": "the-history-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lytton-strachey/eminent-victorians/the-history-of-the", "text": "The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian – ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lytton Strachey", "slug": "lytton-strachey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lytton-strachey" }, "book": { "title": "Eminent Victorians", "slug": "eminent-victorians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lytton-strachey/eminent-victorians" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ignorance", "slug": "ignorance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lytton_Strachey#Eminent_Victorians_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:32" }, { "id": "0665e3a8-2ab6-4d22-a4c2-f8554ecaf93e", "slug": "these-adventures-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-american-scene/these-adventures-of-the", "text": "These adventures of the critical spirit were such mere mild walks and talks as I almost blush to offer, on this reduced scale, as matter of history; but I draw courage from the remembrance that history is never, in any rich sense, the immediate crudity of what \"happens,\" but the much finer complexity of what we read into it and think of in connection with it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry James", "slug": "henry-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james" }, "book": { "title": "The American Scene", "slug": "the-american-scene", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-american-scene" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 182, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_American_Scene#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:11" }, { "id": "f92bb469-3665-459a-899a-e20a9ec70458", "slug": "along-the-way", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/iron-sunrise/along-the-way", "text": "Along the way she’d acquired a powerful conviction that history was a series of accidents—God was either absent or playing a very elaborate practical joke (the Eschaton didn’t count, having explicitly denied that it was a deity)—and that the seeds of evil usually germinated in the footprints of people who knew how everybody else ought to behave and felt the need to tell them so.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Iron Sunrise", "slug": "iron-sunrise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/iron-sunrise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 294, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Iron_Sunrise_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:05" }, { "id": "e85d9ae4-aef7-4272-9df4-e93e9c602cdc", "slug": "the-first-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/iron-sunrise/the-first-time", "text": "The first time Wednesday saw a flag she had to look away, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Patriotism had never been a huge Muscovite virtue, and to see the way the fat woman in the red pants held on to her flag as if it were a life preserver made Wednesday want to slap her and yell Grow up! It’s all over! Except it also felt like...like watching Jerm, aged three, playing with the pewter pot containing Grandpa’s ashes. Abuse of the dead, an infection of history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Iron Sunrise", "slug": "iron-sunrise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/iron-sunrise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 277, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "patriotism", "slug": "patriotism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patriotism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Iron_Sunrise_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:05" }, { "id": "e53e312b-87b9-4c84-a2f0-a5948496c791", "slug": "time-travel-destabilizes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky/time-travel-destabilizes", "text": "Time travel destabilizes history.\n\nHistory is a child of contingency; so many events depend on critical misunderstandings or transient encounters that even the apocryphal butterfly’s wing is apt to stir up a storm in short order.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Singularity Sky", "slug": "singularity-sky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Singularity_Sky_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:04" }, { "id": "3c62c26c-a30a-4a0f-9054-4e597ce47bbd", "slug": "in-my-opinion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/a-j-p-taylor/the-origins-of-the-second-world-war/in-my-opinion", "text": "In my opinion, statesmen are too absorbed by events to follow a preconceived plan. They take one step, and the next follows from it. The systems are created by historians, as happened with Napoleon; and the systems attributed to Hitler are really those of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Elizabeth Wiskemann, and Alan Bullock.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "A J P Taylor", "slug": "a-j-p-taylor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/a-j-p-taylor" }, "book": { "title": "The Origins of the Second World War", "slug": "the-origins-of-the-second-world-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/a-j-p-taylor/the-origins-of-the-second-world-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 98, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor#The_Origins_of_the_Second_World_War_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:04" }, { "id": "ac384bf2-9fd8-4772-b7ab-753b18b01003", "slug": "with-the-destruction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord/comments-on-the-society-of-the-spectacle/with-the-destruction", "text": "With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Guy Debord", "slug": "guy-debord", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord" }, "book": { "title": "Comments on the Society of the Spectacle", "slug": "comments-on-the-society-of-the-spectacle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord/comments-on-the-society-of-the-spectacle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Debord#Comments_on_the_Society_of_the_Spectacle_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:35" }, { "id": "e26ef833-261a-45e3-b030-92f353b01a35", "slug": "they-made-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer/yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it/they-made-two", "text": "They made two thousand years ago seem like yesterday, and yesterday look like today, just as today would, in time, look like tomorrow. (p. 128).", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Geoff Dyer", "slug": "geoff-dyer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer" }, "book": { "title": "Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It", "slug": "yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer/yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Geoff_Dyer#Yoga_For_People_Who_Can't_Be_Bothered_To_Do_It_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:29" }, { "id": "c78f2a04-680a-4868-8b95-75a56af76424", "slug": "ruins-antique-ruins-at-least-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer/yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it/ruins-antique-ruins-at-least-are", "text": "Ruins—antique ruins at least—are what is left when history has moved on. They are no longer at the mercy of history, only of time. (p. 207).", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Geoff Dyer", "slug": "geoff-dyer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer" }, "book": { "title": "Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It", "slug": "yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/geoff-dyer/yoga-for-people-who-cant-be-bothered-to-do-it" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Geoff_Dyer#Yoga_For_People_Who_Can't_Be_Bothered_To_Do_It_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:29" }, { "id": "56d74266-8f3f-4e94-b57d-7cf0e8f3cade", "slug": "some-of-us-prefer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions/some-of-us-prefer", "text": "“Some of us prefer history to legends, lady,” DeWar said heavily, “and sometimes everybody can be wrong.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Inversions", "slug": "inversions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Inversions_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:18" }, { "id": "826ab8a8-eadb-424e-a940-ff1a8da1fc91", "slug": "a-history-of-hitler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-kershaw/hitler-1889-1936/a-history-of-hitler", "text": "A history of Hitler has to be a history of his power — how he came to get it, what its character was, how he exercised it, why he was allowed to expand it to break all institutional barriers, why resistance to that power was so feeble. But these are questions to be directed at German society, not just at Hitler.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Kershaw", "slug": "ian-kershaw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-kershaw" }, "book": { "title": "Hitler 1889-1936", "slug": "hitler-1889-1936", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-kershaw/hitler-1889-1936" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Kershaw#Hitler_1889-1936:_Hubris_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:07" }, { "id": "be8ff442-d1fb-49c7-8798-94efd60ba4e8", "slug": "the-present-enshrines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/the-second-sex/the-present-enshrines", "text": "The present enshrines the past—and in the past all history has been made by men.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Simone de Beauvoir", "slug": "simone-de-beauvoir", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir" }, "book": { "title": "The Second Sex", "slug": "the-second-sex", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/the-second-sex" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "men", "slug": "men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/men" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir#The_Second_Sex_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:51" }, { "id": "f398e785-5f20-4c5a-8653-3e6a04ef761b", "slug": "one-widely-articulated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order/one-widely-articulated", "text": "One widely articulated paradigm was based on the assumption that the end of the Cold War meant the end of significant conflict in global politics and the emergence of one relatively harmonious world. The most widely discussed formulation of this model was \"the \"end of history\" thesis advanced by Francis Fukuyama. \"We may be witnessing, Fukuyama argued, \"… the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.\" … The future will be devoted not to great exhilarating struggles over ideas but rather to resolving mundane economic and technical problems. And, he concluded rather sadly, it will all be rather boring.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel P. Huntington", "slug": "samuel-p-huntington", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington" }, "book": { "title": "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order", "slug": "the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "boredom", "slug": "boredom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington#The_Clash_of_Civilizations_and_the_Remaking_of_World_Order_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:50" }, { "id": "d783ffb5-dd87-4f30-9928-5fd8fbd53473", "slug": "the-west-won", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order/the-west-won", "text": "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel P. Huntington", "slug": "samuel-p-huntington", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington" }, "book": { "title": "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order", "slug": "the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 51, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington#The_Clash_of_Civilizations_and_the_Remaking_of_World_Order_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:50" }, { "id": "a3097986-e56e-4ac3-8bd4-c8ed6c416b18", "slug": "christianity-and-islam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-mask-of-apollo/christianity-and-islam", "text": "Christianity and Islam have changed irrevocably the moral reflexes of the world. The philosopher Herakleitos said with profound truth that you cannot step twice into the same river. The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes. Perhaps the only real value of history lies in considering this endlessly varied play between the essence and the accidents.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Renault", "slug": "mary-renault", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault" }, "book": { "title": "The Mask of Apollo", "slug": "the-mask-of-apollo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-mask-of-apollo" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Renault#The_Mask_of_Apollo_(1966)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:49" }, { "id": "9b8b6cce-6110-4178-9f54-982b7de7609f", "slug": "americans-experience-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/americans-experience-time", "text": "Americans experience time in two distinct ways—as religious people and as people of no religion. Just so, we experience ourselves as a historical people and as people who are not implicated by history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:48" }, { "id": "a649eed8-7354-4f35-9d83-73816d986ec0", "slug": "my-skepticism-concerning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/my-skepticism-concerning", "text": "My skepticism concerning all notions of reconquista is skepticism toward the view that history is restorative. I get older but I do not grow wiser. It is only by shedding skin, by turning pages, by ordering stronger spectacles, by having my hair cut, that I seem to be restoring myself to a circular pattern, that I seem to progress toward youth and capability, though my progress is actually a decline.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:47" }, { "id": "42026035-471d-4927-9e5e-a0753f7c0767", "slug": "anyone-who-is", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle/anyone-who-is", "text": "Anyone who is of a thoughtful, philisophical cast of mind will occasionaly be struck by the appearance of certain organizing principles of history. The forms these principles seem to take inevitably depends upon one's specific obsession. For a mornachist, history is a struggle of classes of economic civil war. An agriculturalist sees the dynamic of populations, land, and availability of food; a philosopher might speak of the will to power or the will to sythesis; a theologian of the will of God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthew Stover", "slug": "matthew-stover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover" }, "book": { "title": "Blade of Tyshalle", "slug": "blade-of-tyshalle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 100, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "point of view", "slug": "point-of-view", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/point-of-view" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Stover#Blade_of_Tyshalle_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:44" }, { "id": "af5bc073-af30-4b89-a4f0-637d0f9a1b18", "slug": "men-need-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival/men-need-history", "text": "Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are. But history, like sanctity, can reside in the heart; it is enough that there is something there.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "V. S. 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"https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/history-as-well", "text": "History, as well as life itself, is complicated; neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "Collapse", "slug": "collapse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 349, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": 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But he knows it is not so. Between black and white there is a gulf fixed. Deeper than pity, deeper than honourable dealings, deeper even than goodwill, lies an awareness on both sides that people like Paul and himself, with their pianos and violins, are here on this earth, the earth of South Africa, on the shakiest of pretexts. [...] In fact, from Africans in general, even from Coloured people, he feels a curious, amused tenderness emanating: a sense that he must be a simpleton, in need of protection, if he imagined he can get by on the basis of straight looks and honourable dealings when the ground beneath his feet is soaked with blood and the vast backward depth of history rings with shouts of anger. — Chapter 2, page 17.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. M. 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I mean the executioner and his assistants, both great and small. If I were the Irish woman, I should rest most uneasy in my grave knowing to what interpreter the story of my last hours has been consigned.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. M. 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Coetzee", "slug": "j-m-coetzee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee" }, "book": { "title": "Waiting for the Barbarians", "slug": "waiting-for-the-barbarians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 24, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Waiting_for_the_Barbarians_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:29" }, { "id": "2631dd7d-4fc1-4318-9c24-5c9d0e43e8ad", "slug": "india-has-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel/india-has-been", "text": "India has been born and reborn scores of times, and it will be reborn again. India is forever, and India is forever being made.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shashi Tharoor", "slug": "shashi-tharoor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Indian Novel", "slug": "the-great-indian-novel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "homeland", "slug": "homeland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor#The_Great_Indian_Novel_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:29" }, { "id": "9c7a7d6e-8079-44fe-9399-cf0d483aa3d6", "slug": "this-is-my-story", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel/this-is-my-story", "text": "This is my story of the India I know, with its biases, selections, omissions, distortions, all mine.... Every Indian must for ever carry with him, in his head and heart, his own history of India.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shashi Tharoor", "slug": "shashi-tharoor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Indian Novel", "slug": "the-great-indian-novel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor#The_Great_Indian_Novel_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "5f08c2ad-32cc-42af-9ab8-28eadf56c096", "slug": "the-british-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel/the-british-are", "text": "The British are the only people in history crass enough to have made revolutionaries out of Americans.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shashi Tharoor", "slug": "shashi-tharoor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Indian Novel", "slug": "the-great-indian-novel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor#The_Great_Indian_Novel_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "1f56028d-d947-46f6-b63a-eae0841d81db", "slug": "you-dont-remember", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/you-dont-remember", "text": "You don’t remember your first ancestors. You have no memory of ninety-nine percent of what makes you what you are! Instead you have comfy baby-stories you tell yourselves to explain why you’re not good people. What sin you committed or how you didn’t do with this god or that god told you. Instead of learning how not to be bad, you learn how to be forgiven and carried off to heaven. Most of you find it easier to believe the baby-stories than to learn from history and science, because it takes brains and hard study to understand history and science, but the stories are simple and comfy. People who want things easy and comfy resent people who study things. They teach their children the comfy stories and tell them not to worry about studying, just buy a ticket to go to heaven, and gradually, everyone becomes as ignorant as everyone else. It’s happened time after time on Earth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Margarets", "slug": "the-margarets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 302, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ignorance", "slug": "ignorance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Margarets_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "765f8113-b41c-4d85-aa77-a7fb1fea4144", "slug": "when-i-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/when-i-was", "text": "When I was a kid, Mami told me the Mexican gods weren’t the only bloody ones, and we should never serve gods that had been invented to take the blame for everything bloody, painful, primitive and unenlightened that people wanted to do. Why did we Israelites kill every man, woman, child and beast in that city? Why, the Lord Jehovah commanded it. Why do we Spaniards steal food from these Indian people, and mutilated them, and use them as slaves? Why, we do it so they will love Christ! Why do we Aztecs torture and sacrifice people? Huitzilopotchli demands it!\n\nWhether it was the Israelites invading Canaan or the Spanish invading the Southwest, or one Mexican tribe warring against another, the answer was always the same. We enslave and torture and mutilate and kill in the name of our god.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 390, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "230098c5-ae65-423d-a41c-35b9f3225450", "slug": "the-world-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/the-world-had", "text": "The world had been repeatedly swept by war and famine and plague when the population had been a quarter of what it was now! Less than a hundred years ago. Sparse population didn’t equal peace. It never had. All it meant were fewer casualties.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 322, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "12d5d753-de4e-488c-8064-ba4e60d3100b", "slug": "my-grandfather-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/my-grandfather-said", "text": "My grandfather said people who can learn, learn morality the way they learn everything else, by building on history. He also said that some people cannot learn from history, so they cannot change. For them, there’s only one book or tradition or whatever it’s called in their religion, and in that book God is eternal and whatever the book says God commanded two or three or four thousand years ago, God still commands today. That may be kill homosexuals or kill nonbelievers. It may say enslave your enemies. It may say mutilate or sequester women, or sell your ten-year-old daughter for somebody’s third wife.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 391, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "5f2b6f29-9078-4f10-a335-d64ba735210f", "slug": "our-religion-is-based", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/our-religion-is-based", "text": "“Our religion is based upon eschewing human sacrifice in favor of lives that are fulfilling, productive, and joyful.”\n\nStartled, Ellin cried, “Human sacrifice! I am surprised you can think of such a thing!”\n\nD’Jevier said with unfeigned weariness, “My dear young woman, our history is made up of millennia of human sacrifice. Well into the twenty-first century, huge armies of young men were sacrificed to tribal or national honor, women were sacrificed to male supremacy, children were sacrificed to brutality, all immolated in flames of painful duty. We try to determine whether the dutiful will suffer and to decide how that suffering may be compensated. We continually redesign our society to provide joy to those who incur pain on our behalf.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 270, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "sacrifice", "slug": "sacrifice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sacrifice" }, { "name": "duty", "slug": "duty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/duty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "ba41c3a5-63a6-4e08-9b9b-b6327e986f8c", "slug": "it-would-be-some", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/it-would-be-some", "text": "“It would be some young firebrands with more energy than sense, and they would do it because they would regard the religion in question as a kind of disease.”\n\n“Catching, is it?”\n\n“Seemingly so. Or, perhaps I should say, suspected to be so.”\n\n“That could be ugly. People turn fanatic, do they? Rant and rave against the unholy? Claim to have the only source of truth? Execute people for heresy? Burn people at the stake? Shovel them wholesale into ovens?” Rasiel was a student of human history, including its more barbaric periods.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 336, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "d69c3d66-cee8-4798-a5e4-249d54409ca0", "slug": "to-us-it-does", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore/to-us-it-does", "text": "“To us it does not seem that long ago, possibly because our children hear stories told around the fire of things which happened fifteen centuries back. Such stories carry an immediacy one does not get from books.…”\n\n“Which is why some countries carry such old grudges,” offered Marianne. “What children learn at their grandmas’ knees they act upon as though it happened yesterday.”\n\nHe nodded gravely, even sadly. “Perhaps that is true. Those who have an oral tradition full of old wrongs and old revenge do seem to fight the same battles forever. If the Irish were not forever singing of their ancient wrongs—or writing poetry about it…well, we see the result in every morning’s newspapers.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Marianne, the Magus and the Manticore", "slug": "marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 67, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Marianne,_the_Magus,_and_the_Manticore_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:20" }, { "id": "b91047fa-ee3d-4f8f-ba8a-469ee8a12adc", "slug": "history-like-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper/the-last-of-the-mohicans/history-like-love", "text": "History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Fenimore Cooper", "slug": "james-fenimore-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "The Last of the Mohicans", "slug": "the-last-of-the-mohicans", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper/the-last-of-the-mohicans" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "heroism", "slug": "heroism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper#The_Last_of_the_Mohicans_(1826)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:15" }, { "id": "be4d7bb5-9c53-40fd-959b-4d414841b0b1", "slug": "but-if-germany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology/but-if-germany", "text": "But if Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Simone Weil", "slug": "simone-weil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil" }, "book": { "title": "Simone Weil: An Anthology", "slug": "simone-weil-an-anthology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 124, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "propaganda", "slug": "propaganda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil#The_Great_Beast_(1947)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:14" }, { "id": "40b10dee-f23c-4b91-bb39-da71f9298e85", "slug": "the-common-run", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology/the-common-run", "text": "The common run of moralists complain that man is moved by his private self-interest: would to heaven it were so! Private interest is a self-centered principle of action, but at the same time restricted, reasonable and incapable of giving rise to unlimited evils. Whereas, on the other hand, the law of all activities governing social life, except in the case of primitive communities, is that here one sacrifices human life — in himself and in others — to things which are only means to a better way of living. This sacrifice takes on various forms, but it all comes back to the question of power. Power, by definition, is only a means; or to put it better, to possess a power is simply to possess means of action which exceed the very limited force that a single individual has at his disposal. But power-seeking, owing to its essential incapacity to seize hold of its object, rules out all consideration of an end, and finally comes, through an inevitable reversal, to take the place of all ends. It is this reversal of the relationship between means and end, it is this fundamental folly that accounts for all that is senseless and bloody right through history. Human history is simply the history of the servitude which makes men — oppressed and oppressors alike — the plaything of the instruments of domination they themselves have manufactured, and thus reduces living humanity to being the chattel of inanimate chattels.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Simone Weil", "slug": "simone-weil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil" }, "book": { "title": "Simone Weil: An Anthology", "slug": "simone-weil-an-anthology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 141, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil#Analysis_of_Oppression_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:14" }, { "id": "dc7cff47-bc0d-416d-8d0f-521e77f36906", "slug": "hunters-for-gold", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/hunters-for-gold", "text": "Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "Heart of Darkness", "slug": "heart-of-darkness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness#Part_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:12" }, { "id": "5f9d53dc-234c-4fcb-ad7b-fb68947d43c8", "slug": "we-keep-falling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/we-keep-falling", "text": "We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Talents", "slug": "parable-of-the-talents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 392, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Talents_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:11" }, { "id": "6402ca67-b47a-477f-b1e8-545a6979935f", "slug": "from-what-ive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/from-what-ive", "text": "“From what I’ve read,” I said to him, “the world goes crazy every three or four decades. The trick is to survive until it goes sane again.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Sower", "slug": "parable-of-the-sower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 229, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "197def52-1772-48bd-9512-6d086795846d", "slug": "h-istory-is-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code/h-istory-is-always", "text": "[H]istory is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books—books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, \"What is history, but a fable agreed upon?\" By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dan Brown", "slug": "dan-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown" }, "book": { "title": "The Da Vinci Code", "slug": "the-da-vinci-code", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "propaganda", "slug": "propaganda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:06" }, { "id": "e752fe71-a8cf-4d27-b792-70af77f2e497", "slug": "the-official-style", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/the-reader-over-your-shoulder/the-official-style", "text": "The official style is at once humble, polite, curt and disagreeable: it derives partly from that used in Byzantine times by the eunuch slave-secretariat, writing stiffly in the name of His Sacred Majesty, whose confidence they enjoyed, to their fellow-slaves outside the palace precincts — for the Emperor had summary power over everyone; and partly from the style used by the cleric-bureaucracy of the Middle Ages, writing stiffly in the name of the feudal lords to their serfs and, though cautious of offending their employers, protected from injury by being servants of the Church, not of the Crown, and so subject to canon, not feudal, law. The official style of civil servants, so far as it recalls its Byzantine derivation, is written by slaves to fellow-slaves of a fictitious tyrant; and, so far as it recalls its mediaeval derivation, is written by members of a quasi-ecclesiastical body, on behalf of quasi-feudal ministers (who, being politicians, come under a different code of behaviour from theirs) to a serflike public.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Graves", "slug": "robert-graves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves" }, "book": { "title": "The Reader Over Your Shoulder", "slug": "the-reader-over-your-shoulder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/the-reader-over-your-shoulder" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "bureaucracy", "slug": "bureaucracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/bureaucracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves#The_Reader_Over_Your_Shoulder_(1943)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:05" }, { "id": "2de4df13-6af2-4691-a00c-0cd04b235d2b", "slug": "besides-saint-george", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/paint-your-dragon/besides-saint-george", "text": "Besides, [Saint] George pointed out, dragons burn towns and demand princesses as ransom.\n\nThe dragons, referring to the Siege of Jerusalem, the Sack of Constantinople and a thousand years of dynastic marriages, said, Look who's talking.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tom Holt", "slug": "tom-holt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt" }, "book": { "title": "Paint Your Dragon", "slug": "paint-your-dragon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/paint-your-dragon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Holt#Paint_Your_Dragon_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:56" }, { "id": "39414442-fabf-4ad1-9038-7ec4aee09540", "slug": "fifty-years-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski/the-ascent-of-man/fifty-years-from", "text": "Fifty years from now, if an understanding of man's origins, his evolution, his history, his progress is not in the common place of the school books, we shall not exist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jacob Bronowski", "slug": "jacob-bronowski", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski" }, "book": { "title": "The Ascent Of Man", "slug": "the-ascent-of-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski/the-ascent-of-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_Bronowski#The_Ascent_of_Man_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:50" }, { "id": "7a64b333-bbe3-41dd-9e44-00f36e7b89c1", "slug": "in-every-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski/the-ascent-of-man/in-every-age", "text": "In every age there is a turning point, a new way of seeing and asserting the coherence of the world. It is frozen in the statues of Easter Island that put a stop to time—and in the medieval clocks of Europe that once also seemed to say the last word about the heavens for ever. Each culture tries to fix its visionary moment, when it was transformed by a new conception either of nature or of man. But in retrospect, what commands our attention as much are the continuities—the thoughts that run or recur from one civilization to another.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jacob Bronowski", "slug": "jacob-bronowski", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski" }, "book": { "title": "The Ascent Of Man", "slug": "the-ascent-of-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacob-bronowski/the-ascent-of-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_Bronowski#The_Ascent_of_Man_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:49" }, { "id": "23849044-5e4a-486e-a114-5086db04f3f7", "slug": "the-seventh-rule", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/saul-alinsky/rules-for-radicals/the-seventh-rule", "text": "The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics. The judgment of history leans heavily on the outcome of success or failure; it spells the difference between the traitor and the patriotic hero. There can be no such thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds he becomes a founding father.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Saul Alinsky", "slug": "saul-alinsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/saul-alinsky" }, "book": { "title": "Rules for Radicals", "slug": "rules-for-radicals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/saul-alinsky/rules-for-radicals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky#Rules_for_Radicals:_A_Practical_Primer_for_Realistic_Radicals_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:42" }, { "id": "e291ccfd-f85c-48af-afad-f89da6daf11e", "slug": "listen-are-we-helpless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz/listen-are-we-helpless", "text": "Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Empires of Charlemagne and the Turk: Ground to dust and plowed with salt. Spain, France, Britain, America — burned into the oblivion of the centuries. And again and again and again. Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing? This time, it will swing us clean to oblivion, he thought.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter M. Miller Jr.", "slug": "walter-m-miller-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr" }, "book": { "title": "A Canticle for Leibowitz", "slug": "a-canticle-for-leibowitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_M._Miller_Jr.#Fiat_Voluntas_Tua", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:41" }, { "id": "277ef8d0-0b68-449f-b39e-3aa4e67cc10f", "slug": "actual-history-occurs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/actual-history-occurs", "text": "Actual history occurs, so the speak, on credit; only subsequent development will decide retroactively if the current revolutionary violence will be forgiven, legitimated, or if it will continue to exert a pressure on the shoulders of the present generation as its guilt, as its unsettled debt.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Slavoj Žižek", "slug": "slavoj-zizek", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek" }, "book": { "title": "The Sublime Object of Ideology", "slug": "the-sublime-object-of-ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revolution", "slug": "revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek#The_Sublime_Object_of_Ideology_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:18" }, { "id": "3fe94de8-8daf-428f-9f29-e4cc085b5c61", "slug": "imagine-the-terrestrial", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/london-fields/imagine-the-terrestrial", "text": "Imagine the terrestrial timespan as an outstretched arm: a single swipe of an emery=board, across the nail of the third finger, erases human history. We haven't been around for very long. And we've turned the earth's hair white. She seemed to have eternal youth but now she's ageing awful fast, like an addict, like a waxless candle. Jesus, have you seen her recently? We used to live and die without any sense of the planet getting older, of mother earth getting older, living and dying. We used to live outside history. But now we're all coterminous. We're inside history now all right, on its leading edge, with the wind ripping past our ears. Hard to love, when you're bracing yourself for impact. And maybe love can't bear it either, and flees all planets when they reach this condition, when they get to the end of their twentieth centuries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Martin Amis", "slug": "martin-amis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis" }, "book": { "title": "London Fields", "slug": "london-fields", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/london-fields" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Amis#London_Fields_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:12" }, { "id": "628f553e-2785-4020-804b-084dd291e8b0", "slug": "to-look-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexander-hamilton/the-federalist-papers/to-look-for", "text": "To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexander Hamilton", "slug": "alexander-hamilton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexander-hamilton" }, "book": { "title": "The Federalist Papers", "slug": "the-federalist-papers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexander-hamilton/the-federalist-papers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton#The_Federalist_Papers_(1787%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:05" }, { "id": "42ea08f7-d88e-4284-bf47-77fe70413113", "slug": "he-felt-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/he-felt-the", "text": "He felt the sensation of the dragon rummaging around in his mind, trying to find a clue to understanding. He half-saw, half-sensed the flicker of random images, of dragons, of the mythical age of reptiles and—and here he felt the dragon's genuine astonishment—of some of the less commendable areas of human history, which were most of it. And after the astonishment came the baffled anger. There was practically nothing the dragon could do to people that they had not, sooner or later, tried on one another, often with enthusiasm.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Guards! Guards!", "slug": "guards-guards", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:55" }, { "id": "a521d66d-c283-4863-9c2d-1c7e3256b389", "slug": "actors-said-granny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters/actors-said-granny", "text": "\"Actors,\" said Granny, witheringly. \"As if the world weren't full of enough history without inventing more.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Wyrd Sisters", "slug": "wyrd-sisters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:54" }, { "id": "055d14b9-c52f-4f88-8f52-5dcd79c0275c", "slug": "this-was-real", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters/this-was-real", "text": "This was real. This was more real even than reality. This was history. It might not be true, but that had nothing to do with it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Wyrd Sisters", "slug": "wyrd-sisters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:54" }, { "id": "402462a7-d80d-4d4c-ae93-2528a4057df1", "slug": "the-truth-isnt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/sourcery/the-truth-isnt", "text": "The truth isn't easily pinned to a page. In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the soap, and much more difficult to find...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Sourcery", "slug": "sourcery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/sourcery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sourcery#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:53" }, { "id": "d0b9c430-05ec-442c-bf69-d535019b0cb0", "slug": "history-has-a-habit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/mort/history-has-a-habit", "text": "History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It's been around a long time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Mort", "slug": "mort", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/mort" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mort#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:52" }, { "id": "6711cafc-198a-428d-91c7-d94357d11ced", "slug": "a-lawyer-without", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-scott/guy-mannering/a-lawyer-without", "text": "A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Scott", "slug": "walter-scott", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-scott" }, "book": { "title": "Guy Mannering", "slug": "guy-mannering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-scott/guy-mannering" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "lawyers", "slug": "lawyers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lawyers" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Scott#Guy_Mannering_(1815)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:49" }, { "id": "9c667337-a8e5-4c37-878f-4a3b9fbf3989", "slug": "but-history-real", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey/but-history-real", "text": "\"But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. ... it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Northanger Abbey", "slug": "northanger-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey#Chapter_14", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:44" }, { "id": "2d5fdc30-6168-41bc-90e7-9232aad4176c", "slug": "historians-you-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey/historians-you-think", "text": "“Historians, you think,” said Miss Tilney, “are not happy in their flights of fancy. They display imagination without raising interest.”, p. 226, 2013", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Northanger Abbey", "slug": "northanger-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey#Chapter_14", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:44" }, { "id": "65f5ff17-c482-4538-9fe0-eafe52adf659", "slug": "history-is-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julian-barnes/the-sense-of-an-ending/history-is-that", "text": "History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Julian Barnes", "slug": "julian-barnes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julian-barnes" }, "book": { "title": "The Sense of an Ending", "slug": "the-sense-of-an-ending", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julian-barnes/the-sense-of-an-ending" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 17, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julian_Barnes#The_Sense_of_an_Ending_(2011)_%3D", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:40" }, { "id": "35899051-452e-4e35-8625-3a80650900fe", "slug": "if-australia-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/the-fatal-shore/if-australia-had", "text": "If Australia had not been settled as a prison and built by convict labor, it would have been colonized by other means; that was foreordained from the moment of Cook’s landing at Botany Bay in 1770. But it would have taken half a century longer, for Georgian Britain would have found it exceptionally difficult to find settlers crazy or needy enough to go there of their own free will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Hughes", "slug": "robert-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "The Fatal Shore", "slug": "the-fatal-shore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/the-fatal-shore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes#The_Fatal_Shore_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:38" }, { "id": "3ae4a1d2-923c-4cc0-bfd9-5ee32b111fff", "slug": "no-matter-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist/no-matter-what", "text": "No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "The Alchemist", "slug": "the-alchemist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 158, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#The_Alchemist_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:32" }, { "id": "20ac2561-c6e8-4edf-a1ef-1fa14056635c", "slug": "all-history-is-modern", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/all-history-is-modern", "text": "All history is modern history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wallace Stevens", "slug": "wallace-stevens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens" }, "book": { "title": "Opus Posthumous", "slug": "opus-posthumous", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wallace_Stevens#Adagia", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:11" }, { "id": "3093599e-bf62-4f66-b6ad-bfbc3287aad9", "slug": "i-knew-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar/i-knew-that", "text": "I knew that it was human nature which lay at the root of History and that no matter where I found myself I was bound to discover superficial similarities expressing and exemplifying that nature. It was human idealism and human impatience and human despair which continued to produce these terrible wars. Human virtues and vices, mixed and confused in individuals, created what we called “History”. Yet I could see no way in which the vicious circle of aspiration and desperation might ever be broken. We were all victims of our own imagination.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Steel Tsar", "slug": "the-steel-tsar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 339, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Steel_Tsar_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:44" }, { "id": "cbcaefcb-3f32-45d9-a6c1-726b36916bce", "slug": "because-the-prehistoric", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch/because-the-prehistoric", "text": "Because the prehistoric cultures endured for so many chiliads, they have shaped our heritage in such a way as to cause us to behave as if their conditions obtained today.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gene Wolfe", "slug": "gene-wolfe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe" }, "book": { "title": "The Citadel of the Autarch", "slug": "the-citadel-of-the-autarch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun#The_Citadel_of_the_Autarch_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "f764400f-a1db-471a-9c3d-341ef5e7fe44", "slug": "bear-in-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/nova/bear-in-mind", "text": "Bear in mind that the novel—no matter how intimate, psychological, or subjective—is always a historical projection of its own time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Nova", "slug": "nova", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/nova" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 116, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Nova_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:18" }, { "id": "937fc26f-4709-48a3-bd8a-b855a1551a65", "slug": "perhaps-coming-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/out-of-the-dead-city/perhaps-coming-from", "text": "Perhaps coming from the royal family, I had easier emotional access to a sense of Toromon’s history. Even at its best, that’s all an aristocracy is good for.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Out of the Dead City", "slug": "out-of-the-dead-city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/out-of-the-dead-city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 62, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Out_of_the_Dead_City_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:16" }, { "id": "b1706c2a-7f35-43ff-94ae-d1338cd8c1fd", "slug": "facts-are-but", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/mason-dixon/facts-are-but", "text": "Facts are but the Play-things of lawyers, — Tops and Hoops, forever a-spin… Alas the Historian may indulge no such idle Rotating. History is not Chronology, for that is left to lawyers, — nor is it Remembrance, for Remembrance belongs to the People. History can as little pretend to the Veracity of the one, as claim the Power of the other, — her Practitioners, to survive, must soon learn the arts of the quidnunc, spy, and Taproom Wit, — that there may ever continue more than one life-line back into a Past we risk, each day, losing our forebears in forever, — not a Chain of single Links, for one broken Link could lose us All, — rather, a great disorderly Tangle of Lines, long and short, weak and strong, vanishing into the Mnemonick Deep, with only their Destination in Common.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Pynchon", "slug": "thomas-pynchon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon" }, "book": { "title": "Mason & Dixon", "slug": "mason-dixon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/mason-dixon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon#Mason_%26_Dixon_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:10" }, { "id": "4fc16638-67e9-489f-99bc-a6622f2bb810", "slug": "who-claims-truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/mason-dixon/who-claims-truth", "text": "Who claims Truth, Truth abandons. History is hir'd, or coerc'd, only in Interests that must ever prove base. She is too innocent, to be left within the reach of anyone in Power, — who need but touch her, and all her Credit is in the instant vanish'd, as if it had never been. She needs rather to be tended lovingly and honorably by fabulists and counterfeiters, Ballad-Mongers and Cranks of ev'ry Radius, Masters of Disguise to provide her the Costume, Toilette, and Bearing, and Speech nimble enough to keep her beyond the Desires, or even the Curiosity, of Government.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Pynchon", "slug": "thomas-pynchon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon" }, "book": { "title": "Mason & Dixon", "slug": "mason-dixon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/mason-dixon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon#Mason_%26_Dixon_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:10" }, { "id": "fceef9bf-1a63-479a-bce9-28ab1e1cafd2", "slug": "history-handed-lenin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution/history-handed-lenin", "text": "History handed Lenin a gift in the shape of the First World War. He grasped it with both hands and used it to craft an insurrection. It is revolutions that make history happen. Liberals of every sort, with rare exceptions, are found on the other side.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tariq Ali", "slug": "tariq-ali", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali" }, "book": { "title": "The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution", "slug": "the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revolution", "slug": "revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali#The_Dilemmas_of_Lenin:_Terrorism,_War,_Empire,_Love,_Revolution_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:07" }, { "id": "ef9bbc29-e984-4461-b52e-2bd817a55b4b", "slug": "the-assassination-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution/the-assassination-of-the", "text": "The assassination of the Austrian crown prince by a Serbian nationalist was the trigger for the conflict, not the underlying cause, comparable in modern times to the explosions of 9/11 that provided the pretext for the war on Iraq, the destruction of Libya, Syria and the Yemen and the total destabilisation of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The post 9/11 wars have lasted longer than the First and Second Wars put together.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tariq Ali", "slug": "tariq-ali", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali" }, "book": { "title": "The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution", "slug": "the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/the-dilemmas-of-lenin-terrorism-war-empire-love-revolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali#The_Dilemmas_of_Lenin:_Terrorism,_War,_Empire,_Love,_Revolution_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:07" }, { "id": "53fc3099-7fc0-4c3b-8152-2c2ca7e3d4af", "slug": "but-if-anything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/but-if-anything", "text": "But if anything is for certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over[.]", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_King's_Men#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:59" }, { "id": "ca3bef0c-f1ef-4314-b8f4-49d5238d9495", "slug": "youre-a-historian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/tales-of-the-jazz-age/youre-a-historian", "text": "You're a historian. Tell me if there are any bath-tubs in history. I think they've been frightfully neglected.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "F.Scott Fitzgerald", "slug": "fscott-fitzgerald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald" }, "book": { "title": "Tales of the Jazz Age", "slug": "tales-of-the-jazz-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/tales-of-the-jazz-age" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald#Tales_of_the_Jazz_Age_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:50" }, { "id": "3591cb2d-35fb-454b-b198-3cb584a3f377", "slug": "the-salient-mystery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead/the-salient-mystery", "text": "The salient mystery of Dark Ages sets the stage for mass amnesia. People living in vigorous cultures typically treasure those cultures and resist any threat to them. How and why can a people so totally discard a formerly vital culture that it becomes vitally lost?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Jacobs", "slug": "jane-jacobs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs" }, "book": { "title": "Dark Age Ahead", "slug": "dark-age-ahead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/dark-age-ahead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#Dark_Age_Ahead_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:48" }, { "id": "d9799a06-c64b-4fb8-8185-1d87ea0655f4", "slug": "the-dictature-of-money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler/the-decline-of-the-west/the-dictature-of-money", "text": "The dictature of money marches on, tending to its material peak, in the Faustian Civilization as in every other. And now something happens that is intelligible only to one who has penetrated the essence of money. If it were anything tangible, then its existence would be forever — but, as it is a form of thought, it fades out as soon as it has thought its economic world to finality, and has no more material upon which to feed. … We have not the freedom to reach to this or that, but to do the necessary or to do nothing. And a task that historic necessity has set will be accomplished with the individual or against him.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Oswald Spengler", "slug": "oswald-spengler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler" }, "book": { "title": "The Decline of the West", "slug": "the-decline-of-the-west", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler/the-decline-of-the-west" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 506, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oswald_Spengler#The_Decline_of_the_West_(1918,_1923)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:42" }, { "id": "107f08c6-a6e0-4a8e-9028-84eaf7aad011", "slug": "is-this-fight", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/is-this-fight", "text": "Is this fight against history part of the fight against a dimension of the mind in which centrifugal faculties and forces might develop—faculties and forces that might hinder the total coordination of the individual with the society? Remembrance of the Fast may give rise to dangerous insights, and the established society seems to be apprehensive of the subversive contents of memory. Remembrance is a mode of dissociation from the given facts, a mode of “mediation” which breaks, for short moments, the omnipresent power of the given facts. Memory recalls the terror and the hope that passed. Both come to life again", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 98, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:39" }, { "id": "1fa52b4c-0005-48e8-acfd-28c4de3ff2b6", "slug": "history-is-of-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac/lost-illusions/history-is-of-two", "text": "History is of two kinds—there is the official history taught in schools, a lying compilation ad usum delphini; and there is the secret history which deals with the real causes of events—a scandalous chronicle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Honoré de Balzac", "slug": "honore-de-balzac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac" }, "book": { "title": "Lost Illusions", "slug": "lost-illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/honore-de-balzac/lost-illusions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac#Lost_Illusions_(1837-1843)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:29" }, { "id": "89e7ba00-498f-45aa-b651-bbfbca0d9f3a", "slug": "history-does-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson/the-mis-education-of-the-negro/history-does-not", "text": "History does not furnish a case of the elevation of a people by ignoring the thought and aspiration of the people thus served.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carter G. Woodson", "slug": "carter-g-woodson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson" }, "book": { "title": "The Mis-Education of the Negro", "slug": "the-mis-education-of-the-negro", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson/the-mis-education-of-the-negro" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson#The_Mis-Education_of_the_Negro_(1933)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:21" }, { "id": "5fd255ef-ea1f-41be-a99e-667ed827746c", "slug": "the-chief-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson/the-mis-education-of-the-negro/the-chief-reason", "text": "The chief reason why so many give such a little attention to the background of the Negro is the belief that this study is unimportant. They consider as history only such deeds as those of Mussolini who after building up an efficient war machine with the aid of other Europeans would now use it to murder unarmed and defenseless Africans who have restricted themselves exclusively to attending to their own business. If Mussolini succeeds in crushing Abyssinia he will be recorded in \"history\" among the Caesars, and volumes written in praise of the conqueror will find their way to the homes and libraries of thousands of miseducated Negroes. The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with this interpretation of the crimes of the strong.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carter G. Woodson", "slug": "carter-g-woodson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson" }, "book": { "title": "The Mis-Education of the Negro", "slug": "the-mis-education-of-the-negro", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carter-g-woodson/the-mis-education-of-the-negro" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 131, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "racism", "slug": "racism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson#The_Mis-Education_of_the_Negro_(1933)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:21" }, { "id": "4937f84d-8685-462e-aa70-e398bb5fcc08", "slug": "all-history-consists", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/all-history-consists", "text": "All history consists of successive excursions from a single starting-point, to which man returns again and again to organize yet another search for a durable scale of values.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aldo Leopold", "slug": "aldo-leopold", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold" }, "book": { "title": "A Sand County Almanac", "slug": "a-sand-county-almanac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 200, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold#%22Wilderness%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:21" }, { "id": "53f04936-8ad8-4058-88c6-84cfb1478709", "slug": "he-who-owns", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/he-who-owns", "text": "He who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a historical library, and a reserved seat in the theater of evolution. To the discerning eye, his farm is labeled with the badge and symbol of the prairie war.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aldo Leopold", "slug": "aldo-leopold", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold" }, "book": { "title": "A Sand County Almanac", "slug": "a-sand-county-almanac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 30, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold#%22April:_Come_High_Water,%22_%22April:_Draba,%22_%22April:_Bur_Oak,%22_%26_%22April:Sky_Dance%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:20" }, { "id": "bc4bf2a3-3b80-4e85-9f89-6c96b9be156a", "slug": "its-been-a-prevalent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow/its-been-a-prevalent", "text": "It’s been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. A messenger from the Kingdom, arriving at the last moment. But I tell you there is no such message, no such home -- only the millions of last moments... no more. Our history is an aggregate of last moments.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Pynchon", "slug": "thomas-pynchon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon" }, "book": { "title": "Gravity's Rainbow", "slug": "gravitys-rainbow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gravity's_Rainbow#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:19" }, { "id": "e9eb6a7f-2e74-4418-8d1d-8403ed3e411c", "slug": "revolutions-are-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore/revolutions-are-the", "text": "Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Mailer", "slug": "norman-mailer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer" }, "book": { "title": "Barbary Shore", "slug": "barbary-shore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revolution", "slug": "revolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#Barbary_Shore_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:13" }, { "id": "8363049b-5229-41e7-81ac-27f0de6dd5d1", "slug": "anyway-maybe-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake/anyway-maybe-there", "text": "“Anyway, maybe there weren't any solutions. Human society, corpses and rubble. It never learned, it made the same cretinous mistakes over and over, trading short-term gain for long-term pain.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret Atwood", "slug": "margaret-atwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood" }, "book": { "title": "Oryx and Crake", "slug": "oryx-and-crake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood#Oryx_and_Crake_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:11" }, { "id": "ccd473ef-b1bf-4e7a-8fe2-2e6a42c79ba5", "slug": "every-major-horror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/every-major-horror", "text": "\"Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 741, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "altruism", "slug": "altruism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/altruism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10" }, { "id": "5db759e2-3c6a-44b3-ad39-6d4835d8941b", "slug": "like-so-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/like-so-many", "text": "Like so many empires before it, the Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Zbigniew Brzezinski", "slug": "zbigniew-brzezinski", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski" }, "book": { "title": "The Grand Chessboard", "slug": "the-grand-chessboard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 9, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski#The_Grand_Chessboard_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:07" }, { "id": "f88e785c-8676-4540-81df-8c1a5cf3e180", "slug": "it-was-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/it-was-not", "text": "It was not until I joined the faculty of Spelman College, a college for black women in Atlanta, Georgia, that I began to read the African-American historians who never appeared on my reading lists in graduate school (W. E. B. Du Bois, Rayford Logan, Lawrence Reddick, Horace Mann Bond, John Hope Franklin). Nowhere in my history education had I learned about the massacres of black people that took place again and again, amid the silence of a national government pledged, by the Constitution, to protect equal rights for all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Howard Zinn", "slug": "howard-zinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn" }, "book": { "title": "A People's History of the United States", "slug": "a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "racism", "slug": "racism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn#A_People's_History_of_the_United_States_(1980%3B_2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:05" }, { "id": "93046f8b-c988-473c-a7bf-fd77dbd2878a", "slug": "it-is-possible", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/it-is-possible", "text": "It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Howard Zinn", "slug": "howard-zinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn" }, "book": { "title": "A People's History of the United States", "slug": "a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn#A_People's_History_of_the_United_States_(1980%3B_2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:05" }, { "id": "0c0a5c43-0ff5-4cd8-b78c-89694fd97e34", "slug": "i-am-supposing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/i-am-supposing", "text": "I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Howard Zinn", "slug": "howard-zinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn" }, "book": { "title": "A People's History of the United States", "slug": "a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn#A_People's_History_of_the_United_States_(1980%3B_2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:05" }, { "id": "9526337d-a88c-46ad-bb5b-06cb28e3ea40", "slug": "you-can-hide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage/you-can-hide", "text": "You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produced them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage", "slug": "colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami#Colorless_Tsukuru_Tazaki_and_His_Years_of_Pilgrimage_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:03" }, { "id": "573e5d53-aceb-4b53-9cde-a4852ceb4452", "slug": "what-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/four-ways-to-forgiveness/what-is-the", "text": "What is the use trying to describe the flowing of a river at any one moment, and then at the next moment, and then at the next, and the next, and the next? You wear out. You say: There is a great river, and it flows through this land, and we have named it History.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "Four Ways to Forgiveness", "slug": "four-ways-to-forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/four-ways-to-forgiveness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 108, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#Four_Ways_to_Forgiveness_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:00" }, { "id": "04f636d0-baa2-4dff-a957-354921406ef8", "slug": "for-heroes-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/orsinian-tales/for-heroes-do-not", "text": "For heroes do not make history—that is the historians’ job—but, passive, let themselves be borne along, swept up to the crest of the tide of change, of chance, of war.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "Orsinian Tales", "slug": "orsinian-tales", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/orsinian-tales" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 183, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "heroism", "slug": "heroism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#Orsinian_Tales_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:50" }, { "id": "80329da0-a8e1-4c33-bf68-33567c2b18a1", "slug": "we-tend-to-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/we-tend-to-see", "text": "We tend to see our distant past through a reverse telescope that compresses it: a short time as hunter-gatherers, a long time as \"civilized\" people. But civilization is a recent stage of human life, and, for all we know, it may not be any great achievement. It may not even be the final stage. We have been alive on this planet as recognizable humans for about two million years, and for all but the last two or three thousand we’ve been hunter-gatherers. We may sing in choirs and park our rages behind a desk, but we patrol the world with many of a hunter-gatherer’s drives, motives, and skills. These aren’t knowable truths. Should an alien civilization ever contact us, the greatest gift they could give us would be a set of home movies: films of our species at each stage in our evolution.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Diane Ackerman", "slug": "diane-ackerman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman" }, "book": { "title": "A Natural History of the Senses", "slug": "a-natural-history-of-the-senses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 129, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Diane_Ackerman#A_Natural_History_of_the_Senses_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:34" }, { "id": "467ad2be-1fab-4c6b-91e5-b53c556cc070", "slug": "the-world-ahlrada", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/the-world-ahlrada", "text": "The world, Ahlrada Ahn knew, was indifferent to the necessity of preservation. Of histories, of stories layered with meaning and import. It cared nothing for what was forgotten, for memory and knowledge had never been able to halt the endless repetition of wilful stupidity that so bound peoples and civilizations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven Erikson", "slug": "steven-erikson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson" }, "book": { "title": "The Bonehunters", "slug": "the-bonehunters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Erikson#The_Bonehunters_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:32" }, { "id": "140c224c-500f-47e4-98e4-cd0cd670d935", "slug": "time-travel-is-increasingly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/time-travel-is-increasingly", "text": "Time travel is increasingly regarded as a menace. History is being polluted.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "Life, the Universe and Everything", "slug": "life-the-universe-and-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_15", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:27" }, { "id": "51232c82-804b-4b22-a700-76ce114855ac", "slug": "we-are-living-in", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for/we-are-living-in", "text": "We are living in the most destructive and, hence, the most stupid period of the history of our species.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wendell Berry", "slug": "wendell-berry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry" }, "book": { "title": "What Are People For?", "slug": "what-are-people-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry#What_Are_People_For%3F_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:21" }, { "id": "e4814597-e20d-4824-a66e-b4e35c95acf6", "slug": "there-are-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor/there-are-only", "text": "There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns.\n\nIf you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself.\n\nWhat we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher. What we can’t understand we call nonsense. What we can’t read we call gibberish.\n\nThere is no free will.\n\nThere are no variables.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Survivor", "slug": "survivor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "free will", "slug": "free-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/free-will" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Survivor_(Palahniuk_novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:19" }, { "id": "858e0087-b853-4fd1-9a56-2c0580da9855", "slug": "and-the-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-grapes-of-wrath/and-the-great", "text": "And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "The Grapes of Wrath", "slug": "the-grapes-of-wrath", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-grapes-of-wrath" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 249, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "rebellion", "slug": "rebellion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:59" }, { "id": "9418f380-7248-4b54-bce8-9c783eedd86a", "slug": "the-great-events", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes/the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace/the-great-events", "text": "The great events of history are often due to secular changes in the growth of population and other fundamental economic causes, which, escaping by their gradual character the notice of contemporary observers, are attributed to the follies of statesmen or the fanaticism of atheists.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Maynard Keynes", "slug": "john-maynard-keynes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes" }, "book": { "title": "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", "slug": "the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes/the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 14, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes#The_Economic_Consequences_of_the_Peace_(1919)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:53" }, { "id": "5af3fd5e-baeb-4ad4-aded-3af957cb9a4a", "slug": "anyone-who-feels", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz/on-war/anyone-who-feels", "text": "Anyone who feels the urge to undertake such a task must dedicate himself for his labors as he would prepare for a pilgrimage to distant lands. He must spare no time or effort, fear no earthly power or rank, and rise above his own vanity or false modesty in order to tell, in accordance with the expression of the Code Napoléon, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl von Clausewitz", "slug": "carl-von-clausewitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz" }, "book": { "title": "On War", "slug": "on-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz/on-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz#Book_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:37" }, { "id": "54bba18f-2229-4db3-923a-0baab4f2fa85", "slug": "it-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen/it-is-the", "text": "It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gertrude Stein", "slug": "gertrude-stein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein" }, "book": { "title": "Wars I Have Seen", "slug": "wars-i-have-seen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein#Wars_I_Have_Seen_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:34" }, { "id": "1223fc94-683e-4c2e-b340-2c057383ff3d", "slug": "the-alphabet-when", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-alphabet-when", "text": "The alphabet, when pushed to a high degree of abstract visual intensity, became typography. The printed word with its specialist intensity burst the bonds of medieval corporate guilds and monasteries, created extreme individualist patterns of enterprise and monopoly. (p. 23)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "Understanding Media", "slug": "understanding-media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Understanding_Media_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:13" }, { "id": "107b022d-fd18-4de5-a2f2-8bbfb24eaa53", "slug": "one-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-acts-of-king-arthur-and-his-noble-knights/one-of-the", "text": "One of the greatest errors in the reconstruction of another era lies in our tendency to think of them as being like ourselves in feeling and attitudes. Actually, without considerable study on the part of a present-day man — if he were confronted by a fifteenth-century man — there would be no possible communication. I think it is possible through knowledge and discipline for a modern man to understand, and, to a certain extent, live into a fifteenth-century mind, but the reverse would be completely impossible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights", "slug": "the-acts-of-king-arthur-and-his-noble-knights", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-acts-of-king-arthur-and-his-noble-knights" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#The_Acts_of_King_Arthur_and_His_Noble_Knights_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:05" }, { "id": "4233591a-3c9a-4504-b29c-f88b4c11043a", "slug": "it-is-true", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden/it-is-true", "text": "... it is true of the spirit as it is true of battles — only the winners are remembered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "East of Eden", "slug": "east-of-eden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 307, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel)#Part_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:00" }, { "id": "7e85dd1f-cf9f-47d5-9af1-3de088e6cb98", "slug": "the-sixth-pre-christian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler/the-sleepwalkers/the-sixth-pre-christian", "text": "The sixth pre-Christian century—the miraculous century of Buddha, Confucius and Lâo-Tse, of the Ionian philosophers and Pythagoras—was a turning point for the human species. A March breeze seemed to blow across the planet from China to Samos, stirring man into awareness, like the breath of Adam's nostrils. In the Ionian school of philosophy, rational thought was emerging from the mythological dream-world. ...which, within the next two thousand years, would transform the species more radically than the previous two hundred thousand had done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur Koestler", "slug": "arthur-koestler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler" }, "book": { "title": "The Sleepwalkers", "slug": "the-sleepwalkers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler/the-sleepwalkers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "philosophy", "slug": "philosophy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Koestler#The_Sleepwalkers:_A_History_of_Man's_Changing_Vision_of_the_Universe_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:55" }, { "id": "f8cfe03a-1353-4e0d-80e0-781de07d8a7d", "slug": "i-n-the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker/the-blank-slate/i-n-the-past", "text": "[I]n the past two decades anthropologists have gathered data on life and death in pre-state societies rather than accepting the warm and fuzzy stereotypes. What did they find? In a nutshell: Hobbes was right, Rousseau was wrong.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven Pinker", "slug": "steven-pinker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker" }, "book": { "title": "The Blank Slate", "slug": "the-blank-slate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker/the-blank-slate" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 95, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker#The_Blank_Slate_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:49" }, { "id": "fc1b34e6-3939-4594-961e-f1190334b796", "slug": "she-was-beautiful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars/she-was-beautiful", "text": "She was beautiful, she was powerful; but she was no longer young. Event would soon be washing by her, the way they did everyone else; history was a wave that moved through time slightly faster than an individual life did, so that even when people had lived only to seventy or eighty, they had been behind the wave by the time they died; and how much more so now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Blue Mars", "slug": "blue-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 587, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Blue_Mars_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:46" }, { "id": "6510e19f-ac41-4029-ac10-58b11761eb35", "slug": "the-triviality-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars/the-triviality-of-the", "text": "The triviality of the current scene usually put her off, but now she supposed that the politics of the moment always looked petty and stupid; only later did it take on the look of respectable statecraft, of immutable History.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Blue Mars", "slug": "blue-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 563, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Blue_Mars_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:46" }, { "id": "e6fbcce2-fd03-421a-9cad-d6e388dc05f6", "slug": "being-on-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/being-on-mars", "text": "“Being on Mars will change us in an evolutionary way.”\n\nArkady shook his head vehemently, causing him to spin a little in the air over the table. “No, no, no, no! History is not evolution! It is a false analogy! Evolution is a matter of environment and chance, acting over millions of years. But history is a matter of environment and choice, acting within lifetimes, and sometimes within years, or months, or days! History is Lamarckian! So that if we choose to establish certain institutions on Mars, there they will be! And if we choose others, there they will be!”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Red Mars", "slug": "red-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 88, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Red_Mars_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "334abb67-395f-4ac9-b267-3898e46f8946", "slug": "and-it-seemed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/and-it-seemed", "text": "And it seemed to him as he drove on day after day that history was like some vast thing that was always over the tight horizon, invisible except in its effects. It was what happened when you weren’t looking—an unknowable infinity of events, which although out of control, controlled everything.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Red Mars", "slug": "red-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 283, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Red_Mars_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "2f705075-4248-4b74-a100-8b7382220fab", "slug": "well-societies-without", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/well-societies-without", "text": "Well, societies without a plan, that was history so far; but history so far had been a nightmare, a huge compendium of examples to be avoided.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Red Mars", "slug": "red-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 284, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Red_Mars_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "1c400833-c557-4598-bcd6-9bc890d34ebb", "slug": "it-was-a-real", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/it-was-a-real", "text": "It was a real science; it had discovered there among the contingency and disorder, some valid general principles of evolution—development, adaptation, complexification, and many more specific principles as well, confirmed by the various subdisciplines.\n\nWhat he needed were similar principles influencing human history. The little reading he did in historiography was not encouraging; it was either a sad imitation of the scientific method, or art pure and simple. About every decade a new historical explanation revised all that had come before, but clearly revisionism held pleasures that had nothing to do with the actual justice of the case being made.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Green Mars", "slug": "green-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 221, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Green_Mars_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "0c1a5876-d22f-4671-b673-a7cddda7d8c8", "slug": "one-morning-he-spent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/one-morning-he-spent", "text": "One morning he spent three hours talking about feudalism—how it was the clearest political expression of primate dominance dynamics, how it had never really gone away, how transnational capitalism was feudalism writ large, how the aristocracy of the world had to figure out how to subsume capitalist growth within the steady-state stability of the feudal model.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Green Mars", "slug": "green-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 80, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "capitalism", "slug": "capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Green_Mars_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "02ea5ce4-c829-4dbe-a990-483772649fb5", "slug": "historical-analogy-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/historical-analogy-is-the", "text": "Historical analogy is the last refuge of people who can’t grasp the current situation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Red Mars", "slug": "red-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 465, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Red_Mars_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "f8565b8a-1535-4a64-b38a-8ad539278e62", "slug": "contingency-is-rich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/contingency-is-rich", "text": "Contingency is rich and fascinating; it embodies an exquisite tension between the power of individuals to modify history and the intelligible limits set by laws of nature. The details of individual and species's lives are not mere frills, without power to shape the large-scale course of events, but particulars that can alter entire futures, profoundly and forever.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 77, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "bf9987c8-12c2-45ce-a171-817316df005b", "slug": "the-real-tragedy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/the-real-tragedy", "text": "The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape our history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 282, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "bdbd8770-265c-40b4-8d76-4b0f1b07e979", "slug": "the-divine-tape", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life/the-divine-tape", "text": "The divine tape player holds a million scenarios, each perfectly sensible. Little quirks at the outset, occurring for no particular reason, unleash cascades of consequences that make a particular future seem inevitable in retrospect. But the slightest early nudge contacts a different groove, and history veers into another plausible channel, diverging continually from its original pathway. The end results are so different, the initial perturbation so apparently trivial.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Wonderful Life", "slug": "wonderful-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 320, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Wonderful_Life_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "99788187-f39f-4ce8-82b7-0b19c8428b1e", "slug": "great-thinkers-build", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/great-thinkers-build", "text": "Great thinkers build their edifices with subtle consistency. We do our intellectual forebears an enormous disservice when we dismember their visions and scan their systems in order to extract a few disembodied “gems”—thoughts or claims still accepted as true. These disarticulated pieces then become the entire legacy of our ancestors, and we lose the beauty and coherence of older systems that might enlighten us by their unfamiliarity—and their consequent challenge—in our fallible (and complacent) modern world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 437, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "intellectuals", "slug": "intellectuals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intellectuals" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "97da79dc-d0b2-4871-bd3f-34163a64bae1", "slug": "if-i-choose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/if-i-choose", "text": "If I choose to impose individual blame for all past social ills, there will be no one left to like in some of the most fascinating periods of our history. For example […] if I place every Victorian anti-Semite beyond the pale of my attention, my compass of available music and literature will be pitifully small. Though I hold no shred of sympathy for active persecution, I cannot excoriate individuals who acquiesced passively in a standard societal judgment. Rail instead against the judgment, and try to understand what motivates men of decent will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 269, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "6c98e605-e22f-4121-9979-b5c98efdb5e0", "slug": "we-debase-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/we-debase-the", "text": "We debase the richness of both nature and our own minds if we view the great pageant of our intellectual history as a compendium of new information leading from primal superstition to final exactitude. We know that the sun is hub of our little corner of the universe, and that ties of genealogy connect all living things on our planet, because these theories assemble and explain so much otherwise disparate and unrelated information—not because Galileo trained his telescope on the moons of Jupiter or because Darwin took a ride on a Galápagos tortoise.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 441, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "0854d791-fa74-4b6a-b8a1-f01de041c23f", "slug": "h-istorical-science-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life/h-istorical-science-is-not", "text": "[H]istorical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Wonderful Life", "slug": "wonderful-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 279, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Wonderful_Life_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "e9bbeb7a-4060-4ef2-a3c7-c899043c2f11", "slug": "all-the-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rabindranath-tagore/sadhana/all-the-great", "text": "All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit — the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rabindranath Tagore", "slug": "rabindranath-tagore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rabindranath-tagore" }, "book": { "title": "Sadhana", "slug": "sadhana", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rabindranath-tagore/sadhana" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore#S%C4%81dhan%C4%81_:_The_Realisation_of_Life_(1916)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:32" }, { "id": "126ca04e-b5fd-4993-aff2-3fb421dbfb47", "slug": "there-is-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/there-is-very", "text": "There is very little thanks in history. Dog eat dog.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit at Rest", "slug": "rabbit-at-rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "gratitude", "slug": "gratitude", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gratitude" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_at_Rest_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:30" }, { "id": "cae765da-5c0a-4958-82c2-8c5546c9e9e6", "slug": "the-portrayal-of-senator", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/treason/the-portrayal-of-senator", "text": "The portrayal of Senator Joe McCarthy as a wild-eyed demagogue destroying innocent lives is sheer liberal hobgoblinism. Liberals weren't cowering in fear during the McCarthy era. They were systematically undermining the nation's ability to defend itself while waging a bellicose campaign of lies to blacken McCarthy's name. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie. Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ann Coulter", "slug": "ann-coulter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter" }, "book": { "title": "Treason", "slug": "treason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/treason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter#Treason_:_Liberal_Treachery_from_the_Cold_War_to_the_War_on_Terrorism_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:16" }, { "id": "072ddb5d-8c4f-4853-8fa8-112ef9791a53", "slug": "all-idealization-makes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/the-secret-agent/all-idealization-makes", "text": "All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity — it is to destroy it. Leave that to the moralists, my boy. History is made by men, but they do not make it in their heads. The ideas that are born in their consciousness play an insignificant part in the march of events. History is dominated and determined by the tool and the production — by the force of economic conditions. Capitalism has made socialism, and the laws made by the capitalist for the protection of property are responsible for anarchism. No one can tell what form the social organisation may take in the future. Then why indulge in prophetic phantasies? At best they can only interpret the mind of the prophet, and can have no objective value. Leave that pastime to the moralists, my boy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "The Secret Agent", "slug": "the-secret-agent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/the-secret-agent" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "capitalism", "slug": "capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad#The_Secret_Agent_(1907)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:11" }, { "id": "9fd5b01e-84a3-42c6-a677-733d8facbc26", "slug": "because-whats-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america/because-whats-history", "text": "“Because what’s history?” he asked rhetorically when he was in his expansive dinnertime instructional mode. “History is everything that happens everywhere. Even here in Newark. Even here on Summit Avenue. Even what happens in his house to an ordinary man—that’ll be history too someday.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Roth", "slug": "philip-roth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth" }, "book": { "title": "The Plot Against America", "slug": "the-plot-against-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Roth#The_Plot_Against_America_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:09" }, { "id": "1846b651-d306-41f9-90fc-1896aa3c7594", "slug": "turned-the-wrong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america/turned-the-wrong", "text": "Turned the wrong way around, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied as “History,” harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Roth", "slug": "philip-roth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth" }, "book": { "title": "The Plot Against America", "slug": "the-plot-against-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 113, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Roth#The_Plot_Against_America_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:09" }, { "id": "b485cf11-2326-43bb-8ad0-30a129cf9e6e", "slug": "the-intrigues-of-unworthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/the-intrigues-of-unworthy", "text": "The intrigues of unworthy courtiers to gain the favour of still more unworthy kings, or the records of murderous battles and sieges, have been dilated on, and told over and over again, with all the eloquence of style and all the charms of fancy; while the circumstances which have most deeply affected the morals and welfare of the people have been passed over with but slight notice, as dry and dull, and capable of neither warmth nor colouring.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Mackay", "slug": "charles-mackay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay" }, "book": { "title": "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", "slug": "extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mackay_(author)#Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds_(1841)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:06" }, { "id": "116226c2-754b-4f11-b0a1-f82c5798279a", "slug": "she-was-a-student", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station/she-was-a-student", "text": "She was a student of history, valued the lessons of it. The worst atrocities began with half-measures, with apologies, compromising with the wrong side, shrinking from what had to be done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "C. J. Cherryh", "slug": "c-j-cherryh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh" }, "book": { "title": "Downbelow Station", "slug": "downbelow-station", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 192, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "compromise", "slug": "compromise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compromise" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh#Downbelow_Station_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:06" }, { "id": "43a446cf-e5d4-488d-a7bf-c910ab504deb", "slug": "the-historicity-of-jesus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/the-historicity-of-jesus", "text": "The historicity of Jesus is the slipperiest question in all history because for centuries the question couldn’t be raised. They would hang you for asking — or burn you at the stake.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 357, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:01" }, { "id": "d2f18338-2901-40c3-ad7f-6a0e38c8789e", "slug": "history-has-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/history-has-the", "text": "History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — i.e., none to speak of.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:00" }, { "id": "7c2fa620-d647-4dce-ac8a-7fec7187853e", "slug": "a-generation-which", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/a-generation-which", "text": "A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Time_Enough_for_Love_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:59" }, { "id": "9ad2a4c5-86fa-4560-a3d8-813c8a6229bb", "slug": "i-was-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-was-not", "text": "\" … I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea — a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.\"\n\nHe sighed. \"Another year, another class — and for me another failure. One can lead a child to knowledge but one cannot make him think.\" Suddenly he pointed his stump at me. \"You. What is the moral difference, if any, between the citizen and the civilian?\"\n\n\"The difference, I said carefully, \"lies in the field of civic virtue. A citizen accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.\"\n\n\"The exact words of the book,\" he said scornfully. \"But do you understand it? Do you believe it?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Starship Troopers", "slug": "starship-troopers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 26, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "c5c6dafc-17e7-428e-8c46-ea0c63b0a3b7", "slug": "i-think-perhaps", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/i-think-perhaps", "text": "I think perhaps of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "The Past Through Tomorrow", "slug": "the-past-through-tomorrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 401, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "totalitarianism", "slug": "totalitarianism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#The_Past_Through_Tomorrow_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:56" }, { "id": "40e32626-8e3d-4a10-bd29-deff2408ca98", "slug": "the-truth-of-a-proposition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/the-truth-of-a-proposition", "text": "“The truth of a proposition has little or nothing to do with its psychodynamics. The notion that ‘truth will prevail’ is merely a pious wish; history doesn’t show it.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "The Past Through Tomorrow", "slug": "the-past-through-tomorrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 606, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#The_Past_Through_Tomorrow_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:56" }, { "id": "d61d4ca7-41b1-45a9-8ffd-31122e3519e2", "slug": "history-is-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/history-is-never", "text": "History is never surprising—after it happens.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "The Past Through Tomorrow", "slug": "the-past-through-tomorrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 333, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#The_Past_Through_Tomorrow_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:55" }, { "id": "f5136dc8-d7c7-4334-8892-6c18c92dc726", "slug": "you-see-when", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x/you-see-when", "text": "\"You see, when you're middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Coupland", "slug": "douglas-coupland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland" }, "book": { "title": "Generation X", "slug": "generation-x", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "everyday life", "slug": "everyday-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/everyday-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Coupland#Generation_X_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:51" }, { "id": "68c02ad1-af98-497f-a1d6-4fd1c3907a99", "slug": "over-periods-of-10-000", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/freeman-dyson/the-scientist-as-rebel/over-periods-of-10-000", "text": "Over periods of 10,000 years the distinctions between Western and Eastern and African cultures lose all meaning. Over a time span of 100,000 years we are all Africans. And over a time span of 300 million years we are all amphibians, waddling uncertainly out of dried-up ponds onto the alien and hostile land.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Freeman Dyson", "slug": "freeman-dyson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/freeman-dyson" }, "book": { "title": "The Scientist as Rebel", "slug": "the-scientist-as-rebel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/freeman-dyson/the-scientist-as-rebel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson#The_Scientist_As_Rebel_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:12" }, { "id": "885824f0-346c-4fe2-9739-d9a5edff1709", "slug": "it-seems-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/it-seems-like", "text": "It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant... History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of 'history' it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turnoff to take when I got to the other end... but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: no doubt at all about that... There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning... And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave... So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hunter S. Thompson", "slug": "hunter-s-thompson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson" }, "book": { "title": "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "slug": "fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas_(novel)#8._%22Genius_'Round_the_World_Stands_Hand_in_Hand,_and_One_Shock_of_Recognition_Runs_the_Whole_Circle_'Round%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:08" }, { "id": "f1516379-372b-4513-982c-1be460840113", "slug": "thus-we-learn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet/thus-we-learn", "text": "Thus we learn again that what people set down day to day is of greater value than what they try to synthesize retrospectively into a grand sweep or theory.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "And Yet", "slug": "and-yet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#And_Yet...:_Essays_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:06" }, { "id": "65b6ff78-c653-43db-8905-87f8123f2b02", "slug": "if-a-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/if-a-great", "text": "If a great city or a great state should fall as the result of an apparent \"accident\", the there would be a general reason why it required only an accident to make it fall.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "For the Sake of Argument", "slug": "for-the-sake-of-argument", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#For_the_Sake_of_Argument:_Essays_and_Minority_Reports_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:04" }, { "id": "ae9bf099-a43b-43d7-8478-d3ecfc523580", "slug": "finnerack-warmed-to-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-brave-free-men/finnerack-warmed-to-his", "text": "Finnerack warmed to his subject. “Further, why should some toil for a mouthful of bread while long-fingered sybarites partake of Forty-Five Dishes? The good things should be divided; we should start the new system on a basis of equality.”\n\nMialambre responded: “Your sentiments or generous and do you credit. All I can say is that such drastic redistributions have previously been attempted, always to result in chaos and cruel tyranny of one sort or another. This is the lesson of history, which we must now heed.”\n\nFinnerack offered no further opinions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Brave Free Men", "slug": "the-brave-free-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-brave-free-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 193, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "tyranny", "slug": "tyranny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Brave_Free_Men_(1973%3B_serialized_1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:00" }, { "id": "91f6e5cc-7d21-4e93-8c52-eb7732b8c7f7", "slug": "events-rush-together", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-brave-free-men/events-rush-together", "text": "Events rush together. History occurs.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Brave Free Men", "slug": "the-brave-free-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-brave-free-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 43, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Brave_Free_Men_(1973%3B_serialized_1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:00" }, { "id": "9da408b4-a543-4fe0-80c5-d49c67defdb7", "slug": "it-may-help", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens/it-may-help", "text": "It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Good Omens", "slug": "good-omens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 26, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Good_Omens#Eleven_years_ago", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:52" }, { "id": "bc163908-0bf2-480f-ab4c-eec96bcf37ee", "slug": "columbus-sailed-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/the-road-to-wigan-pier/columbus-sailed-the", "text": "Columbus sailed the Atlantic, the first steam engines tottered into motion, the British squares stood firm under the French guns at Waterloo, the one-eyed scoundrels of the nineteenth century praised God and filled their pockets; and this is where it all led to — to labyrinthine slums and dark back kitchens with sickly, ageing people creeping round and round them like blackbeetles.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "The Road to Wigan Pier", "slug": "the-road-to-wigan-pier", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/the-road-to-wigan-pier" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:50" }, { "id": "46c6f96d-a714-42de-ac00-7638fcbaa380", "slug": "and-if-a-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes/leviathan/and-if-a-man", "text": "And if a man consider the original of this great Ecclesiastical Dominion, he will easily perceive, that the Papacy, is no other than the Ghost of the deceased Romane Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: For so did the Papacy start up on a Sudden out of the Ruines of that Heathen Power.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Hobbes", "slug": "thomas-hobbes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes" }, "book": { "title": "Leviathan", "slug": "leviathan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes/leviathan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 386, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Chapter_46", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:48" }, { "id": "f1c8a407-63d4-47d7-a660-99bf4b1a9aaf", "slug": "the-register-of-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes/leviathan/the-register-of-knowledge", "text": "The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Hobbes", "slug": "thomas-hobbes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes" }, "book": { "title": "Leviathan", "slug": "leviathan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hobbes/leviathan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 40, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:47" }, { "id": "3765ead8-dd9f-4f0a-b4c8-d8aaec7ec93c", "slug": "do-you-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/do-you-think", "text": "Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing long division with Roman numerals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "A Man Without a Country", "slug": "a-man-without-a-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "prejudice", "slug": "prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#A_Man_Without_a_Country_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:46" }, { "id": "f150a5f4-a87b-40ae-a4ee-41606f330781", "slug": "ive-got-news", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/bluebeard/ive-got-news", "text": "I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Bluebeard", "slug": "bluebeard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/bluebeard" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 91, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Bluebeard_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:42" }, { "id": "755374ca-e7f4-4df0-9190-daf462264534", "slug": "you-want-to-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/deadeye-dick/you-want-to-know", "text": "You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages — they haven't ended yet.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Deadeye Dick", "slug": "deadeye-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/deadeye-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Deadeye_Dick_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:42" }, { "id": "f46c52a7-7df2-4054-8387-5908b6788632", "slug": "labor-history-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/jailbird/labor-history-was", "text": "Labor history was pornography of a sort in those days, and even more so in these days. In public schools and in the homes of nice people it was and remains pretty much taboo to tell tales of labor's sufferings and derring-do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Jailbird", "slug": "jailbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/jailbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 12, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Jailbird_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:41" }, { "id": "0a898816-48a3-4245-8bbb-a71fa0f70cae", "slug": "teachers-of-children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions/teachers-of-children", "text": "Teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Breakfast of Champions", "slug": "breakfast-of-champions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Breakfast_of_Champions_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:40" }, { "id": "49a39e50-c719-4461-83a7-b345eac30da9", "slug": "history-writes-bokonon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/history-writes-bokonon", "text": "“History,” writes Bokonon. “Read it and weep!”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Cat's Cradle", "slug": "cats-cradle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat's_Cradle#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:37" }, { "id": "e2b8e22b-2af5-4eb8-8def-3b9912acbf20", "slug": "history-is-opaque", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/history-is-opaque", "text": "History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, [...] The generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Swan", "slug": "the-black-swan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_Improbable_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "650550be-c302-440c-8920-c4127e329945", "slug": "w-e-read-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/w-e-read-too", "text": "[W]e read too much into shallow recent history... but not from history in general [which] teaches us that things that never happened before do happen. ...outside of the narrowly defined time series; the broader the look, the better the lesson.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "cd248b52-e9d7-48ac-bbdd-1a21ad696d76", "slug": "n-ews-is-full", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/n-ews-is-full", "text": "[N]ews... is full of noise and... history is largely stripped of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "ba0b7a69-e347-4752-bbdc-a367f6e05019", "slug": "i-have-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/i-have-two", "text": "I have two ways of learning from history: from the past, by reading the elders; and from the future, thanks to my Monte Carlo toy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "34602e01-647e-439d-9c07-11029e779865", "slug": "cities-and-thrones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/puck-of-pooks-hill/cities-and-thrones", "text": "Cities and Thrones and Powers,\n\nStand in Time's eye,\n\nAlmost as long as flowers,\n\nWhich daily die:\n\nBut, as new buds put forth\n\nTo glad new men,\n\nOut of the spent and unconsidered Earth,\n\nThe Cities rise again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rudyard Kipling", "slug": "rudyard-kipling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling" }, "book": { "title": "Puck of Pook's Hill", "slug": "puck-of-pooks-hill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/puck-of-pooks-hill" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "transience", "slug": "transience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling#Puck_of_Pook's_Hill_(1906)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:27" }, { "id": "a9ef1703-5c73-4a90-ac20-470558402ca0", "slug": "a-man-lives", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain/a-man-lives", "text": "A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Mann", "slug": "thomas-mann", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann" }, "book": { "title": "The Magic Mountain", "slug": "the-magic-mountain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann#The_Magic_Mountain_(1924)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:16" }, { "id": "063ca98e-66a6-4c49-b597-3231bacd30ac", "slug": "the-invention-of-printing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain/the-invention-of-printing", "text": "The invention of printing and the Reformation are and remain the two outstanding services of central Europe to the cause of humanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Mann", "slug": "thomas-mann", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann" }, "book": { "title": "The Magic Mountain", "slug": "the-magic-mountain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann#The_Magic_Mountain_(1924)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:16" }, { "id": "261e853c-8fa7-46d0-b315-18113bbdb8e7", "slug": "there-are-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers/there-are-only", "text": "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "O Pioneers!", "slug": "o-pioneers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "storytelling", "slug": "storytelling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/storytelling" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#O_Pioneers!_(1913)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:01" }, { "id": "1c6c6fa6-8214-4351-8389-0f0d785a90fe", "slug": "the-history-of-every", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers/the-history-of-every", "text": "The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "O Pioneers!", "slug": "o-pioneers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "homeland", "slug": "homeland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#O_Pioneers!_(1913)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:01" }, { "id": "a6d8b66b-7e1d-4d74-bba3-cbad1fe7f455", "slug": "history-is-is-filled", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/history-is-is-filled", "text": "History is is filled with brilliant people who wanted to fix things and just made them worse.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Lullaby", "slug": "lullaby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "good intentions", "slug": "good-intentions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/good-intentions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Lullaby_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:58" }, { "id": "c23f492a-c557-4a2d-9e27-5f926fdc95dd", "slug": "i-am-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/myth-and-meaning/i-am-not", "text": "I am not far from believing that, in our own societies, history has replaced mythology and fulfils the same function, that for societies without writing and without archives the aim of mythology is to ensure that as closely as possible—complete closeness is obviously impossible—the future will remain faithful to the present and to the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Claude Lévi-Strauss", "slug": "claude-levi-strauss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss" }, "book": { "title": "Myth and Meaning", "slug": "myth-and-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/myth-and-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss#Myth_and_Meaning_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:57" }, { "id": "2272f568-2ec2-4593-8742-2a7456daa386", "slug": "enthusiastic-partisans-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/enthusiastic-partisans-of-the", "text": "Enthusiastic partisans of the idea of progress are in danger of failing to recognize — because they set so little store by them — the immense riches accumulated by the human race on either side of the narrow furrow on which they keep their eyes fixed; by underrating the achievements of the past, they devalue all those which still remain to be accomplished.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Claude Lévi-Strauss", "slug": "claude-levi-strauss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss" }, "book": { "title": "Tristes Tropiques", "slug": "tristes-tropiques", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 393, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss#Tristes_Tropiques_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:57" }, { "id": "54f5fed4-90c8-4fe6-8203-354a0dccd08d", "slug": "aristotle-may-be-regarded", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-voice-of-reason/aristotle-may-be-regarded", "text": "Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Voice of Reason", "slug": "the-voice-of-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-voice-of-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "philosophy", "slug": "philosophy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Voice_of_Reason_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:53" }, { "id": "1937dea6-a019-45ad-859e-180cb58b57f4", "slug": "man-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/man-is-the", "text": "Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Virtue of Selfishness", "slug": "the-virtue-of-selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Virtue_of_Selfishness_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:51" }, { "id": "c365f7a0-eac8-4bf3-8bdb-9b0e5cf6217a", "slug": "here-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest/here-was-the", "text": "Here was the astounding fact: the race did go forward; the race did achieve; and in every way the race grew better. Progress through irrational and astounding blunders, whose outrageousness bedwarfed the wildest cliches of romance, was what Kennaston found everywhere. All this, then, also was foreplanned, just as all happenings at Storisende had been, in his puny romance; and the puppets, here to, moved as they thought of their own volition, but really in order to serve a denouement in which many of them had not any personal part or interest....", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Branch Cabell", "slug": "james-branch-cabell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell" }, "book": { "title": "The Cream of the Jest", "slug": "the-cream-of-the-jest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell#The_Cream_of_the_Jest_(1917)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:49" }, { "id": "04638fb3-f61c-4a3d-aa1a-c43fff8203fb", "slug": "among-other-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye/among-other-things", "text": "Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J.D. Salinger", "slug": "jd-salinger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger" }, "book": { "title": "The Catcher in the Rye", "slug": "the-catcher-in-the-rye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye#Chapter_24", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:48" }, { "id": "9f41438e-c6b2-4ef2-9c58-88949f438d42", "slug": "progress-and-nationalism-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/ape-and-essence/progress-and-nationalism-those", "text": "Progress and Nationalism—those were the two great ideas He put into their heads. Progress—the theory that you can get something for nothing; the theory that you can gain in one field without paying for your gain in another; the theory that you alone understand the meaning of history; the theory that you know what’s going to happen fifty years from now; the theory that, in the teeth of all experience, you can foresee all the consequences of your present actions; the theory that Utopia lies just ahead and that, since ideal ends justify the most abominable means, it is your privilege and duty to rob, swindle, torture, enslave and murder all those who, in your opinion (which is, by definition, infallible), obstruct the onward march to the earthly paradise. Remember that phrase of Karl Marx’s: ‘Force is the midwife of Progress.’ He might have added—but of course Belial didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag at that early stage of the proceedings—that Progress is the midwife of Force. Doubly the midwife, for the fact of technological progress provides people with the instruments of ever more indiscriminate destruction, while the myth of political and moral progress serves as the excuse for using those means to the very limit. I tell you, my dear sir, an undevout historian is mad. The longer you study modern history, the more evidence you find of Belial’s Guiding Hand.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aldous Huxley", "slug": "aldous-huxley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley" }, "book": { "title": "Ape and Essence", "slug": "ape-and-essence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/ape-and-essence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" }, { "name": "nationalism", "slug": "nationalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nationalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#Ape_and_Essence_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:36" }, { "id": "55e3b66a-29b6-4cc0-92ba-73bf57044be6", "slug": "history-is-almost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jawaharlal-nehru/the-discovery-of-india/history-is-almost", "text": "History is almost always written by the victors and conquerors and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victors' version is given prominence and holds the field.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jawaharlal Nehru", "slug": "jawaharlal-nehru", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jawaharlal-nehru" }, "book": { "title": "The Discovery Of India", "slug": "the-discovery-of-india", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jawaharlal-nehru/the-discovery-of-india" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "victory", "slug": "victory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/victory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru#The_Discovery_of_India_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:24" }, { "id": "ae9f04ae-3bbb-401e-b0d7-0b71949bf739", "slug": "the-history-of-other", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism/the-history-of-other", "text": "The history of other cultures is non-existent until it erupts in confrontation with the United States.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Culture and Imperialism", "slug": "culture-and-imperialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Culture_and_Imperialism_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:22" }, { "id": "3c3cb64a-2b7f-4fe4-8abe-9e8a17c75b59", "slug": "ideas-cultures-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism/ideas-cultures-and", "text": "Ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force, or more precisely their configurations of power, also being studied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Orientalism", "slug": "orientalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/orientalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Orientalism_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:21" }, { "id": "ca91836c-56ec-4962-afce-12ad4af89193", "slug": "world-events-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/world-events-are", "text": "World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "United States", "slug": "united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#United_States_-_Essays_1952%E2%80%931992_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:19" }, { "id": "aa6fc9b1-6d6e-4d7a-b304-d6409d5a3321", "slug": "nothing-that-shakespeare", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/nothing-that-shakespeare", "text": "Nothing that Shakespeare ever invented was to equal Lincoln's invention of himself and, in the process, us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "United States", "slug": "united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#United_States_-_Essays_1952%E2%80%931992_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:19" }, { "id": "a15ca2ae-f229-4c77-8adf-5bf007a78208", "slug": "traitors-who-prevail", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/traitors-who-prevail", "text": "Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "Julian", "slug": "julian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "betrayal", "slug": "betrayal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/betrayal" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#Julian_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:18" }, { "id": "912063a7-9551-4caf-b3ed-ce9cb5de514d", "slug": "the-history-of-mens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/a-room-of-ones-own/the-history-of-mens", "text": "The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "A Room of One's Own", "slug": "a-room-of-ones-own", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/a-room-of-ones-own" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 72, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "women's equal rights", "slug": "womens-equal-rights", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/womens-equal-rights" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#A_Room_of_One's_Own_(1929)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:16" }, { "id": "798ecb0e-69eb-4f08-aaa8-6af87e9d26ec", "slug": "looking-back-at-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/the-meaning-of-it-all/looking-back-at-the", "text": "Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard P. Feynman", "slug": "richard-p-feynman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman" }, "book": { "title": "The Meaning of It All", "slug": "the-meaning-of-it-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/the-meaning-of-it-all" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#The_Meaning_of_It_All_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:01" }, { "id": "4d4c2298-282d-411c-b4e6-57446bc4daca", "slug": "we-witness-a-passing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune/we-witness-a-passing", "text": "We witness a passing phase of eternity. Important things happen but some people never notice. Accidents intervene. You are not present at episodes. You depend on reports. And people shutter their minds. What good are reports? History in a news account? Preselected at an editorial conference, digested and excreted by prejudice? Accounts you need seldom come from those who make history. Diaries, memoirs and autobiographies are subjective forms of special pleading. Archives are crammed with such suspect stuff.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Chapterhouse: Dune", "slug": "chapterhouse-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Chapterhouse:_Dune_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:55" }, { "id": "0705ca0c-e8a3-4ffe-bbf1-c0d09a06ff68", "slug": "governments-may-rise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/governments-may-rise", "text": "Governments may rise and fall for reasons which appear insignificant, Prince. What small events! An argument between two women... which way the wind blows on a certain day... a sneeze, a cough, the length of a garment or the chance collision of a fleck of sand and a courtier's eye. It is not always the majestic concerns of Imperial ministers which dictate the course of history, nor is it necessarily the pontifications of priests which move the hands of God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Children of Dune", "slug": "children-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "the state", "slug": "the-state", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Children_of_Dune_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:53" }, { "id": "788582f0-3bd3-4c8f-819e-e0903dc5dbaf", "slug": "no-matter-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune-messiah/no-matter-how", "text": "No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune Messiah", "slug": "dune-messiah", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune-messiah" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune_Messiah_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:51" }, { "id": "a4610e0d-7fd0-47ec-a8e2-65b6db5e65ac", "slug": "the-gravest-error", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-gravest-error", "text": "The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and — especially in the case of the Butlerian Jihad — thousands of years of humanity's dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_The_Battle_of_Corrin_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "44b3e5ed-c5c5-4f7a-bf2f-5a6cd54ab327", "slug": "in-truth-is-it-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/in-truth-is-it-better", "text": "In truth, is it better to remember or to forget? We must balance this decision between our history and our humanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "forgetting", "slug": "forgetting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgetting" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_The_Battle_of_Corrin_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "3c84eb7e-b956-461c-9668-121ba8d965fd", "slug": "when-we-consider", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-demon-haunted-world/when-we-consider", "text": "When we consider the founders of our nation: Jefferson, Washington, Samuel and John Adams, Madison and Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine and many others; we have before us a list of at least ten and maybe even dozens of great political leaders. They were well educated. Products of the European Enlightenment, they were students of history. They knew human fallibility and weakness and corruptibility. They were fluent in the English language. They wrote their own speeches. They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week. They knew what to think. They were comfortable with long-term thinking, planning even further ahead than the next election. They were self-sufficient, not requiring careers as politicians or lobbyists to make a living. They were able to bring out the best in us. They were interested in and, at least two of them, fluent in science. They attempted to set a course for the United States into the far future — not so much by establishing laws as by setting limits on what kinds of laws could be passed. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights have done remarkably well, constituting, despite human weaknesses, a machine able, more often than not, to correct its own trajectory. At that time, there were only about two and a half million citizens of the United States. Today there are about a hundred times more. So if there were ten people of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson then, there ought to be 10 x 100 = 1,000 Thomas Jefferson's today. Where are they?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "The Demon-Haunted World", "slug": "the-demon-haunted-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-demon-haunted-world" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#The_Demon-Haunted_World_:_Science_as_a_Candle_in_the_Dark_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:29" }, { "id": "fea7605f-fc89-4133-8833-4b1f6b735a65", "slug": "much-of-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/much-of-human", "text": "Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believed by our ancestors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Broca's Brain", "slug": "brocas-brain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 240, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Broca's_Brain_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:26" }, { "id": "e110ba3e-025f-4916-86d6-aaf3ec5b8549", "slug": "i-pity-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/booker-washington/up-from-slavery/i-pity-from", "text": "I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe. This is so to such an extend that Negroes in this country, who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery — on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive — but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Booker Washington", "slug": "booker-washington", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/booker-washington" }, "book": { "title": "Up From Slavery", "slug": "up-from-slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/booker-washington/up-from-slavery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington#Up_From_Slavery_(1901)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:16" }, { "id": "14a99524-7589-407d-9e52-75dfc88701c0", "slug": "it-cant-make", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/fragile-things/it-cant-make", "text": "“It can’t make things any worse.”\n\n“If there’s one thing that a study of history has taught us, it is that things can always get worse,” said my friend.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Fragile Things", "slug": "fragile-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/fragile-things" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 5, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "pessimism", "slug": "pessimism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Fragile_Things_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:13" }, { "id": "de153a28-3bb8-45d2-a23b-dc3d75a128bd", "slug": "the-important-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods/the-important-thing", "text": "The important thing to understand about American history, wrote Mr. Ibis, in his leather-bound journal, is that it is fictional, a charcoal-sketched simplicity for children, or the easily bored. For the most part it is uninspected, unimagined, unthought, a representation of the thing, and not the thing itself. It is a fine fiction, he continued, pausing for a moment to dip his pen in the inkwell and collect his thoughts, that America was founded by pilgrims, seeking the freedom to believe as they wished, that they came to the Americas, spread and bred and filled the empty land.\n\nIn truth, the American colonies were as much a dumping ground as an escape, a forgetting place.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "American Gods", "slug": "american-gods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Gods#Coming_to_America_1721", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:09" }, { "id": "0ec5d76d-6cd1-4569-8766-1ead271f0ec7", "slug": "what-would-become", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding/what-would-become", "text": "What would become of history, had we not a dependence on the veracity of the historian, according to the experience, what we have had of mankind?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Hume", "slug": "david-hume", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume" }, "book": { "title": "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", "slug": "an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume#An_Enquiry_Concerning_Human_Understanding_(1748)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:55" }, { "id": "15a0555b-6c1e-480a-a2ab-b5d890d9b2bd", "slug": "there-is-no-creature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/there-is-no-creature", "text": "There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother's burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is forever gone. But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Middlemarch", "slug": "middlemarch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Middlemarch_(1871-72)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:52" }, { "id": "d20a53cb-7570-498d-9110-7a2955af2621", "slug": "its-all-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/intruder-in-the-dust/its-all-now", "text": "It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Intruder in the Dust", "slug": "intruder-in-the-dust", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/intruder-in-the-dust" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Intruder_in_the_Dust_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:46" }, { "id": "2dd83fb1-836d-481b-ac6c-5dac0938cbd4", "slug": "dont-you-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/go-down-moses/dont-you-see", "text": "“Dont you see?” he cried. “Dont you see? This whole land, the whole South, is cursed, and all of us who derive from it, whom it ever suckled, white and black both, lie under the curse? Granted that my people brought the curse onto the land: maybe for that reason their descendants alone can—not resist it, not combat it—maybe just endure and outlast it until the curse is lifted. Then your peoples’ turn will come because we have forfeited ours. But not now. Not yet. Dont you see?”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Go Down, Moses", "slug": "go-down-moses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/go-down-moses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 266, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" }, { "name": "racism", "slug": "racism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Go_Down,_Moses_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:46" }, { "id": "b1ce6fa1-1da5-4bd2-9277-749b01238839", "slug": "history-proves-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/history-proves-nothing", "text": "History proves nothing because it contains everything.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "A Short History of Decay", "slug": "a-short-history-of-decay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "paradox", "slug": "paradox", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradox" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#A_Short_History_of_Decay_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:40" }, { "id": "d69f70d6-c84f-47b9-ab78-e8f2a5edf644", "slug": "just-as-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/just-as-the", "text": "Just as the least cultivated nations are usually the best, so those travel best who travel least; they have made less progress than we in our frivolous pursuits, they are less concerned with the objects of our empty curiosity, so that they give their attention to what is really useful. I hardly know any but the Spaniards who travel in this fashion. While the Frenchman is running after all the artists of the country, while the Englishman is getting a copy of some antique, while the German is taking his album to every man of science, the Spaniard is silently studying the government, the manners of the country, its police, and he is the only one of the four who from all that he has seen will carry home any observation useful to his own country. The ancients travelled little, read little, and wrote few books; yet we see in those books that remain to us, that they observed each other more thoroughly than we observe our contemporaries. Without going back to the days of Homer, the only poet who transports us to the country he describes, we cannot deny to Herodotus the glory of having painted manners in his history, though he does it rather by narrative than by comment; still he does it better than all our historians whose books are overladen with portraits and characters. Tacitus has described the Germans of his time better than any author has described the Germans of to-day. There can be no doubt that those who have devoted themselves to ancient history know more about the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Gauls, and Persians than any nation of to-day knows about its neighbours.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "travel", "slug": "travel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_V", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:38" }, { "id": "991aed0f-fa89-4863-b8fb-a2e6261d6be7", "slug": "i-observe-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/i-observe-that", "text": "I observe that in modern times men only get a hold over others by force or self-interest, while the ancients did more by persuasion, by the affections of the heart; because they did not neglect the language; of symbolic expression. All agreements were drawn up solemnly, so that they might be more inviolable; before the reign of force, the gods were the judges of mankind; in their presence, individuals made their treaties and alliances, and pledged themselves to perform their promises; the face of the earth was the book in which the archives were preserved. The leaves of this book were rocks, trees, piles of stones, made sacred by these transactions, and regarded with reverence by barbarous men; and these pages were always open before their eyes. The well of the oath, the well of the living and seeing one; the ancient oak of Mamre, the stones of witness, such were the simple but stately monuments of the sanctity of contracts; none dared to lay a sacrilegious hand on these monuments, and man's faith was more secure under the warrant of these dumb witnesses than it is to-day upon all the rigour of the law.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "symbols", "slug": "symbols", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/symbols" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:35" }, { "id": "5fa3b57e-e93c-48cd-a510-a7520a037eb9", "slug": "thus-the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/thus-the-universe", "text": "Thus the universe was peopled with gods like themselves. The stars, the winds and the mountains, rivers, trees, and towns, their very dwellings, each had its soul, its god, its life. The teraphim of Laban, the manitos of savages, the fetishes of the negroes, every work of nature and of man, were the first gods of mortals; polytheism was their first religion and idolatry their earliest form of worship. The idea of one God was beyond their grasp, till little by little they formed general ideas, and they rose to the idea of a first cause and gave meaning to the word \"substance,\" which is at bottom the greatest of abstractions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:35" }, { "id": "4bcf63e0-4667-4cd4-bcff-0d1159be36fb", "slug": "the-perception-of-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-perception-of-our", "text": "The perception of our action upon other bodies must have first induced us to suppose that their action upon us was effected in like manner. Thus man began by thinking that all things whose action affected him were alive. He did not recognise the limits of their powers, and he therefore supposed that they were boundless; as soon as he had supplied them with bodies they became his gods. In the earliest times men went in terror of everything and everything in nature seemed alive. The idea of matter was developed as slowly as that of spirit, for the former is itself an abstraction.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:35" }, { "id": "f849174b-c9ad-4aab-a035-fcef4ef37c8a", "slug": "i-would-prefer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/i-would-prefer", "text": "I would prefer to begin the study of the human heart with reading the lives of individuals; for then the man hides himself in vain, the historian follows him everywhere; he never gives him a moment's grace nor any corner where he can escape the piercing eye of the spectator; and when he thinks he is concealing himself, then it is that the writer shows him up most plainly. \"Those who write lives,\" says Montaigne, \"in so far as they delight more in ideas than in events, more in that which comes from within than in that which comes from without, these are the writers I prefer; for this reason Plutarch is in every way the man for me.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "b9870034-acf1-4fe8-b5bc-6bf354c9a699", "slug": "war-only-makes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/war-only-makes", "text": "War only makes manifest events already determined by moral causes, which few historians can perceive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "b2cdac23-da3d-4daf-83fc-48927fae11b3", "slug": "the-philosophic-spirit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-philosophic-spirit", "text": "The philosophic spirit has turned the thoughts of many of the historians of our times in this direction; but I doubt whether truth has profited by their labours. The rage for systems has got possession of all alike, no one seeks to see things as they are, but only as they agree with his system.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "beliefs", "slug": "beliefs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "35a89255-b67d-4682-bcab-eee97c359e99", "slug": "i-leave-modern", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/i-leave-modern", "text": "I leave modern history on one side, not only because it has no character and all our people are alike, but because our historians, wholly taken up with effect, think of nothing but highly coloured portraits, which often represent nothing. [Footnote: Take, for instance, Guicciardini, Streda, Solis, Machiavelli, and sometimes even De Thou himself. Vertot is almost the only one who knows how to describe without giving fancy portraits.] The old historians generally give fewer portraits and bring more intelligence and common-sense to their judgments; but even among them there is plenty of scope for choice, and you must not begin with the wisest but with the simplest. I would not put Polybius or Sallust into the hands of a youth; Tacitus is the author of the old, young men cannot understand him; you must learn to see in human actions the simplest features of the heart of man before you try to sound its depths. You must be able to read facts clearly before you begin to study maxims. Philosophy in the form of maxims is only fit for the experienced. Youth should never deal with the general, all its teaching should deal with individual instances. To my mind Thucydides is the true model of historians. He relates facts without giving his opinion; but he omits no circumstance adapted to make us judge for ourselves. He puts everything that he relates before his reader; far from interposing between the facts and the readers, he conceals himself; we seem not to read but to see. Unfortunately he speaks of nothing but war, and in his stories we only see the least instructive part of the world, that is to say the battles. The virtues and defects of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand and the Commentaries of Caesar are almost the same. The kindly Herodotus, without portraits, without maxims, yet flowing, simple, full of details calculated to delight and interest in the highest degree, would be perhaps the best historian if these very details did not often degenerate into childish folly, better adapted to spoil the taste of youth than to form it; we need discretion before we can read him. I say nothing of Livy, his turn will come; but he is a statesman, a rhetorician, he is everything which is unsuitable for a youth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "0220d25d-31f4-4258-91e7-b781224cdc99", "slug": "to-remove-these", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/to-remove-these", "text": "To remove these two obstacles at once, and to bring the human heart within his reach without risk of spoiling his own, I would show him men from afar, in other times or in other places, so that he may behold the scene but cannot take part in it. This is the time for history; with its help he will read the hearts of men without any lessons in philosophy; with its help he will view them as a mere spectator, dispassionate and without prejudice; he will view them as their judge, not as their accomplice or their accuser.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "4d2c9d40-a963-4fb2-b27b-ee3f6b2dac25", "slug": "herodotus-records-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/herodotus-records-that", "text": "Herodotus records that the Lydians, [Footnote: The ancient historians are full of opinions which may be useful, even if the facts which they present are false. But we do not know how to make any real use of history. Criticism and erudition are our only care; as if it mattered more that a statement were true or false than that we should be able to get a useful lesson from it. A wise man should consider history a tissue of fables whose morals are well adapted to the human heart.] under the pressure of great scarcity, decided to invent sports and other amusements with which to cheat their hunger, and they passed whole days without thought of food. Your learned teachers may have read this passage time after time without seeing how it might be applied to children. One of these teachers will probably tell me that a child does not like to leave his dinner for his lessons. You are right, sir—I was not thinking of that sort of sport.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:32" }, { "id": "4ae32b97-7cfc-4918-8199-ca201a4da7b6", "slug": "anyone-who-studies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy/anyone-who-studies", "text": "Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions. Thus, it is an easy matter for him who carefully examines past events to foresee future events in a republic and to apply the remedies employed by the ancients, or, if old remedies cannot be found, to devise new ones based upon the similarity of the events. But since these matters are neglected or not understood by those who read, or, if understood, remain unknown to those who govern, the result is that the same problems always exist in every era.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Niccolo Machiavelli", "slug": "niccolo-machiavelli", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli" }, "book": { "title": "Discourses on Livy", "slug": "discourses-on-livy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "foreseeing the future", "slug": "foreseeing-the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/foreseeing-the-future" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli#Discourses_on_Livy_(1517)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:24" }, { "id": "897d97fb-fc55-4e5e-88bc-00cdafb5e8da", "slug": "i-feel-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/i-feel-that", "text": "I feel that I have within me a medieval soul, and I believe that the soul of my country is medieval, that it has perforce passed through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Revolution — learning from them, yes, but without allowing them to touch the soul, preserving the spiritual inheritance which has come down from what are called the Dark Ages. And Quixotism is simply the most desperate phase of the struggle between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which was the offering of the Middle Ages.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#Conclusion_:_Don_Quixote_in_the_Contemporary_European_Tragi-Comedy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "b39633bd-da65-4014-b415-8efb8b35c6da", "slug": "like-monarchy-monotheism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/like-monarchy-monotheism", "text": "Like monarchy, monotheism had a martial origin. \"It is only on the march and it time of war,\" says Robertson Smith in The Prophets of Israel, \"that a nomad people feels any urgent need of a central authority, and so it came about that in the first beginnings of national organization, centering in the sanctuary of the ark, Israel was thought of mainly as a host of Jehovah. the very name of Israel is martial, and means 'God (El) fighteth,' and Jehovah in the Old Testament is Iahwé Cebāôth — the Jehovah of the armies of Israel. It was on the battlefield that Jehovah's presence was most clearly realized; but in primitive nations the leader in time of war is also the natural judge in time of peace.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VIII_:_From_God_to_God", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "25beff11-7aac-4ecb-ae72-cc94967e2886", "slug": "that-history-should", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/that-history-should", "text": "That history should have imitated history was already sufficiently marvellous; that history should imitate literature is inconceivable....", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jorge Luis Borges", "slug": "jorge-luis-borges", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges" }, "book": { "title": "Ficciones", "slug": "ficciones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges#Ficciones_(1944)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "4a427ca6-e2c0-407b-9163-6b68b1f9037e", "slug": "all-the-confessions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/all-the-confessions", "text": "All the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true. And above all we do not allow the dead to rise up against us. You must stop imagining that posterity will vindicate you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you. You will be lifted clean out from the stream of history. We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you, not a name in a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as in the future. You will never have existed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:15" }, { "id": "9b646b18-24e1-4d9f-87da-09ea48dc2c05", "slug": "oceania-was-at-war-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/oceania-was-at-war-with", "text": "Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the political literature of five years was now completely obsolete. Reports and records of all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks, photographs — all had to be rectified at lightning speed. Although no directive was ever issued, it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain in existence anywhere.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:14" }, { "id": "85f795ce-d254-415a-9e5b-cb37af6c8ad0", "slug": "every-record-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/every-record-has", "text": "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:14" }, { "id": "d39dd60d-6d94-46cf-8d7e-5e5e2cff146d", "slug": "within-twenty-years", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/within-twenty-years", "text": "Within twenty years at the most, he reflected, the huge and simple question, 'Was life better before the Revolution than it is now?' would have ceased once and for all to be answerable. But in effect it was unanswerable even now, since the few scattered survivors from the ancient world were incapable of comparing one age with another.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:13" }, { "id": "c045cfae-ba86-4b56-801e-1814a503ece9", "slug": "the-immediate-advantages", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/the-immediate-advantages", "text": "The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_7", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:13" }, { "id": "8944a663-9136-42b3-ae9d-1bc44aca1e50", "slug": "they-remembered-a-million", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/they-remembered-a-million", "text": "They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a workmate, a hunt for a lost bicycle pump, the expression on a long-dead sister's face, the swirls of dust on a windy morning seventy years ago: but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision. They were like the ant, which can see small objects but not large ones. And when memory failed and written records were falsified — when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:13" }, { "id": "bf2dec6f-1ef5-495a-a0f8-061eb21b4cb2", "slug": "and-if-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/and-if-all", "text": "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:12" }, { "id": "69908958-c563-4f48-a546-2b35363d6320", "slug": "what-happened-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/what-happened-in-the", "text": "What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the pneumatic tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs — to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_4", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:12" }, { "id": "4ccc1948-3305-4339-98ad-bea74f073b47", "slug": "if-the-party", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/if-the-party", "text": "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:12" }, { "id": "17997804-1bb0-4c7e-b813-83bdf18d6a20", "slug": "there-were-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/there-were-the", "text": "There were the vast repositories where the corrected documents were stored, and the hidden furnaces where the original copies were destroyed. And somewhere or other, quite anonymous, there were the directing brains who coordinated the whole effort and laid down the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved, that one falsified, and the other rubbed out of existence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_4", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:12" }, { "id": "7e62e463-d8b5-4939-9fb0-a9d64228e2e0", "slug": "an-immense-amount", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/an-immense-amount", "text": "An immense amount, enough to fill many books, has already been written on the subject [of the Barcelona fighting], and I do not suppose I should exaggerate if I said that nine-tenths of it is untruthful.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Homage to Catalonia", "slug": "homage-to-catalonia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Homage_to_Catalonia_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:11" }, { "id": "7e9138ac-1e15-48c8-9ffa-08942e06a7b8", "slug": "great-men-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus/great-men-are", "text": "Great men are the inspired (speaking and acting) texts of that divine Book of Revelations, wherof a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named History.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Carlyle", "slug": "thomas-carlyle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle" }, "book": { "title": "Sartor Resartus", "slug": "sartor-resartus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#Sartor_Resartus_(1833%E2%80%931834)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:44" }, { "id": "ccc575c7-3970-4efa-a006-ef07478e2351", "slug": "so-true-is-it-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals/so-true-is-it-that", "text": "So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tacitus", "slug": "tacitus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus" }, "book": { "title": "Annals", "slug": "annals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus#Annals_(117)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:43" }, { "id": "140ca602-355a-4008-90fe-0af9267ee1ac", "slug": "for-i-deem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals/for-i-deem", "text": "For I deem it to be the chief function of history to rescue merit from oblivion, and to hold up before evil words and evil deeds the terror of the reprobation of posterity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tacitus", "slug": "tacitus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus" }, "book": { "title": "Annals", "slug": "annals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus#Annals_(117)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:43" }, { "id": "0429107b-2efb-4c6c-a13c-bd27f5501115", "slug": "the-name-christians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals/the-name-christians", "text": "The name [Christians] was derived from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, suffered under Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judæa. By that event the sect, of which he was the founder, received a blow, which, for a time, checked the growth of a dangerous superstition; but it revived soon after, and spread with recruited vigour, not only in Judæa, the soil that gave it birth, but even in the city of Rome, the common sink into which every thing infamous and abominable flows like a torrent from all quarters of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tacitus", "slug": "tacitus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus" }, "book": { "title": "Annals", "slug": "annals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus#Annals_(117)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:43" }, { "id": "d477d8fd-abcf-4ec3-9470-ea7bd291bc0d", "slug": "like-augustus-diocletian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/like-augustus-diocletian", "text": "Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:42" }, { "id": "ac6c326d-3f08-4556-b038-4b5bda7ce128", "slug": "our-habits-of-thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/our-habits-of-thinking", "text": "Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies fictitious or exaggerated.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:42" }, { "id": "a802d504-c2d0-4e5d-a813-649f0771c34c", "slug": "if-we-consult", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/if-we-consult", "text": "If we consult the succeeding writers ... their knowledge will appear gradually to increase as their means of information must have diminished, a circumstance which frequently occurs in historical disquisition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:42" }, { "id": "39eedb11-d999-4870-8ad7-56cabf4d013a", "slug": "since-the-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/since-the-foundation", "text": "Since the foundation of Rome no general had more nobly deserved a triumph than Aurelian.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, 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But in every light the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we discover between a council of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a single city, and an uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire? 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But neither the belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth of history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC 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"https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/wars-and-the", "text": "Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the principal objects of history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": 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Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman Empire.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:41" }, { "id": "5b8fbeef-db28-4abd-b407-60d6ae2d25a3", "slug": "in-the-second", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/in-the-second", "text": "In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:41" }, { "id": "20bffae3-5f87-42b5-b85f-ffe08cfb4d32", "slug": "antoninus-diffused-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/antoninus-diffused-order", "text": "Antoninus diffused order and tranquility over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:41" }, { "id": "dd231742-cf0d-4061-965f-367f77dd494c", "slug": "it-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/it-is-the", "text": "It is the vague modern who is not at all certain what is right who is most certain that Dante was wrong. The serious opponent of the Latin Church in history, even in the act of showing that it produced great infamies, must know that it produced great saints. It is the hard-headed stockbroker, who knows no history and believes no religion, who is, nevertheless, perfectly convinced that all these priests are knaves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_XX:_%22Concluding_Remarks_on_the_Importance_of_Orthodoxy%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:35" }, { "id": "dea0e2d7-a993-44b5-8aca-cc273cabdcbb", "slug": "the-time-of-big", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/the-time-of-big", "text": "The time of big theories was the time of big results. In the era of sentiment and fine words, at the end of the eighteenth century, men were really robust and effective.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "ideas", "slug": "ideas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideas" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_I:_%22Introductory_Remarks_on_the_Importance_of_Orthodoxy%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:34" }, { "id": "45c51fca-a24d-4e62-aeb0-467e8139fe10", "slug": "many-clever-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill/many-clever-men", "text": "Many clever men like you have trusted to civilization. Many clever Babylonians, many clever Egyptians, many clever men at the end of Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that is flagrant with the failures of civilisation, what there is particularly immortal about yours?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", "slug": "the-napoleon-of-notting-hill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#The_Napoleon_of_Notting_Hill_(1904)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:33" }, { "id": "8e17d354-4d6a-4876-aafe-43ecb0b1cba9", "slug": "history-stephen-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/history-stephen-said", "text": "History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "Ulysses", "slug": "ulysses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:32" }, { "id": "5c1dedea-ec14-470a-97b3-4a7bcb655f26", "slug": "to-witness-titanic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld/to-witness-titanic", "text": "To witness titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Larry Niven", "slug": "larry-niven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven" }, "book": { "title": "Ringworld", "slug": "ringworld", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "risk", "slug": "risk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/risk" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Larry_Niven#Ringworld_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:28" }, { "id": "d70dbaf9-ebc0-4b33-bc7d-626dd7a6614e", "slug": "when-israel-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/when-israel-was", "text": "When Israel was first founded in 1948 and all my Jewish friends were jubilant, I was the skeleton at the feast. I said, ‘“We are building ourselves a ghetto. We will be surrounded by tens of millions of Muslims who will never forgive, never forget, and never go away.”\n\nI was right.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "I, Asimov", "slug": "i-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 420, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#I._Asimov:_A_Memoir_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:25" }, { "id": "a7ca0406-633c-42bb-a972-a7a2ceffcc14", "slug": "there-are-no-happy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves/there-are-no-happy", "text": "There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "The Gods Themselves", "slug": "the-gods-themselves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 287, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#The_Gods_Themselves_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:24" }, { "id": "a0c1180d-53b5-4c15-a075-d020afcc6d71", "slug": "all-history-shows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/all-history-shows", "text": "All history shows that we do not learn from the lessons of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 17, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "8e456d81-c533-4e45-ae8f-e594c63c609d", "slug": "youre-naive-hari", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/youre-naive-hari", "text": "You’re naïve Hari. Or not a historian, which is the same thing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 457, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "4f34bfa6-e924-491d-a4c1-1f40c46e0030", "slug": "but-it-seemed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/but-it-seemed", "text": "But it seemed so likely to him that on every world the earliest histories were medleys of self-serving heroisms and minidramas that were meant as morality plays and were not to be taken literally. It was surely true of Helicon, yet you would find scarcely a Heliconian who would not swear by all the tales told and insist it was all true history.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 237, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "4420f008-68c8-42a3-b390-34c587abf08a", "slug": "i-have-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/i-have-always", "text": "I have always dealt with economic forces, rather than philosophic forces, but you can’t split history into neat little nonoverlapping divisions. For instance, religions tend to accumulate wealth when successful and that eventually tends to distort the economic development of a society.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 215, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "37ec2666-2d1d-4dae-83e3-4a5d0c60dff9", "slug": "there-is-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/there-is-too", "text": "There is too much history and there is too little of it that is told.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "1bfdc317-76a9-4d56-9a53-80ae86133fdf", "slug": "if-all-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/if-all-human", "text": "If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 457, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "fbd02dbc-5bec-4bea-8e39-c45a6984c132", "slug": "the-fall-of-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/the-fall-of-empire", "text": "The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Foundation", "slug": "foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Foundation_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:21" }, { "id": "8538b4fb-c5eb-4e6f-a80a-bf06c2ca9bfa", "slug": "francis-quinn-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/francis-quinn-was", "text": "Francis Quinn was a politician of the new school. That, of course, is a meaningless expression, as are all expressions of the sort. Most of the “new schools” we have were duplicated in the social life of ancient Greece, and perhaps, if we knew more about it, in the social life of ancient Sumeria and in the lake dwellings of prehistoric Switzerland as well.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "I, Robot", "slug": "i-robot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#I,_Robot_(1950)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:18" }, { "id": "af6cab32-f06e-4915-8a22-ae394db43393", "slug": "history-it-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/history-it-has", "text": "History, it has been said, never repeats itself but historical situations recur.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 347, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Collected_Stories_of_Arthur_C._Clarke_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:17" }, { "id": "550462cd-ffd2-4ea8-b2a6-ec801816746a", "slug": "people-are-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/people-are-always", "text": "People are always asking me why I've devoted my life to such a horrible period of history, and it's not much of answer to say that there were even worse ones.' 'Then why are you interested in my century?' 'Because it marks the transition between barbarism and civilization.'...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "3001 The Final Odyssey", "slug": "3001-the-final-odyssey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#3001:_The_Final_Odyssey_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:16" }, { "id": "dfab6af0-1e2c-4055-841a-6a1efd6d7b4d", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars/it-is-not", "text": "It is not my duty as an historian to predict the future, only to observe and interpret the past. But its lesson is clear enough; we have lived too long out of contact with reality, and now the time has come to rebuild our lives.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "The City And The Stars", "slug": "the-city-and-the-stars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 183, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_City_and_the_Stars_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:15" }, { "id": "b0e6c895-9ba3-42c5-8ff4-32c092776c28", "slug": "its-too-early", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush/decision-points/its-too-early", "text": "It's too early to say how most of my decisions will turn out. As president, I had the honor of eulogizing Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, once regarded as one of the worst mistakes in presidential history, is now viewed as a selfless act of leadership. And it was quite something to hear the commentators who had once denounced President Reagan as a dunce and a warmonger talk about how the Great Communicator had won the Cold War. Decades from now, I hope people will view me as a president who recognized the central challenge of our time and kept my vow to keep the country safe; who pursued my convictions without wavering but changed course when necessary; who trusted individuals to make choices in their lives; and who used America's influence to advance freedom. And I hope they will conclude that I upheld the honor and dignity of the office I was so privileged to hold. Whatever the verdict on my presidency, I'm comfortable with the fact that I won't be around to hear it. That's a decision point only history will reach.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George W. Bush", "slug": "george-w-bush", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush" }, "book": { "title": "Decision Points", "slug": "decision-points", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush/decision-points" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 476, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_W._Bush#Decision_Points_(November_2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:14" }, { "id": "c40bd6d1-d1fa-4d62-b3c4-a0eeb58d7673", "slug": "its-strange-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano/last-evenings-on-earth/its-strange-how", "text": "It's strange how things happen, Mauricio Silva, known as the Eye, always tried to escape from violence even at the risk of being considered a coward, but the violence, the real violence, can't be escaped, at least not by us, born in Latin America in the 1950s, those of us who were around twenty years old when Salvador Allende died.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Roberto Bolaño", "slug": "roberto-bolano", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano" }, "book": { "title": "Last Evenings On Earth", "slug": "last-evenings-on-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano/last-evenings-on-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roberto_Bola%C3%B1o#Last_Evenings_on_Earth_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:13" }, { "id": "7eecbdad-48e7-42e4-9853-8a79282d1043", "slug": "historian-an-unsuccessful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/historian-an-unsuccessful", "text": "Historian — An unsuccessful novelist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "H.L. Mencken", "slug": "hl-mencken", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken" }, "book": { "title": "A Mencken Chrestomathy", "slug": "a-mencken-chrestomathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#A_Mencken_Chrestomathy_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:01" }, { "id": "e646ef3d-ca34-4256-9fa2-57119e117d43", "slug": "second-after-a-painful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/second-after-a-painful", "text": "Second, after a painful gap without any king, and a furious struggle by various foreign powers to elect men favorable to them, the Seym chose a pathetic Polish incompetent, who had the good sense to die rather promptly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James A. Michener", "slug": "james-a-michener", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener" }, "book": { "title": "Poland", "slug": "poland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 153, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Michener#Poland_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:53" }, { "id": "a800c38e-4b27-46eb-a487-60871d98a537", "slug": "the-crucial-battle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/the-crucial-battle", "text": "...the crucial Battle of Zamość, which is not stressed in most current histories because it involved a Polish-Russian battle in which the Poles won.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James A. Michener", "slug": "james-a-michener", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener" }, "book": { "title": "Poland", "slug": "poland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Michener#Poland_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:53" }, { "id": "65c0d3d5-b2da-45e6-ba43-f4fa78e31511", "slug": "no-invader-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/no-invader-has", "text": "No invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came before.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James A. Michener", "slug": "james-a-michener", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener" }, "book": { "title": "Poland", "slug": "poland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "homeland", "slug": "homeland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Michener#Poland_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:53" }, { "id": "4bef8774-73c5-4f84-9f47-68cc65aebb3d", "slug": "in-a-small", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/in-a-small", "text": "In a small Polish farm community, during the fall planting season of 1981, events occurred which electrified the world, sending reverberations of magnitude to capitals as diverse as Washington, Peking and especially Moscow.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James A. Michener", "slug": "james-a-michener", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener" }, "book": { "title": "Poland", "slug": "poland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Michener#Poland_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:53" }, { "id": "6bb5e08c-6f7f-456e-9feb-6a2ab35c8b5d", "slug": "the-first-premise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/the-first-premise", "text": "The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organisation of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Karl Marx", "slug": "karl-marx", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx" }, "book": { "title": "The German Ideology", "slug": "the-german-ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Marx#The_German_Ideology_(1845-1846)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:48" }, { "id": "1269dfc4-a7cd-4844-a580-465c37ec80a5", "slug": "why-it-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court/why-it-was", "text": "Why, it was like reading about France and the French, before the ever memorable and blessed Revolution, which swept a thousand years of such villany away in one swift tidal-wave of blood -- one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two \"Reigns of Terror,\" if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the \"horrors\" of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror -- that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Twain", "slug": "mark-twain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain" }, "book": { "title": "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", "slug": "a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur's_Court#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:48" }, { "id": "f4ec3ed7-b6d8-4944-9f70-6601666e8a54", "slug": "stalins-strategy-at-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here/stalins-strategy-at-the", "text": "Stalin's strategy at the end of World War II was to acquire a small \"buffer zone between Russia and Germany, consisting of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, and most of Germany. In an effort to garner public support in these nations, Stalin mounted a public-relations campaign around the upbeat theme \"Maybe We Won't Have Your Whole Family Shot,\" and in 1945 Eastern Europe decided to join the Communist bloc by a vote of 28,932,084,164,504,029-0. Heartened by this mandate, Stalin immediately ordered construction work to begin on the Iron Curtain, which was given its name by Sir Winston Churchill, who, in a historic anecdote at a dinner party, said, \"Madam, I may be drunk, but an iron curtain has descended upon BLEAAARRRGGGHHH.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dave Barry", "slug": "dave-barry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry" }, "book": { "title": "Dave Barry Slept Here", "slug": "dave-barry-slept-here", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 126, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dave_Barry#Dave_Barry_Slept_Here:_A_Sort_of_History_of_the_United_States_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:39" }, { "id": "d079cfaa-f18a-49da-b25f-3daa8e79724e", "slug": "in-1948-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here/in-1948-the", "text": "In 1948 the Democrats had little choice but to nominate President Truman, under the banner HE'S GOING TO LOSE. Everybody felt this way: the politicians, the press, the pollsters, the piccolo players, Peter Piper, everybody. The Republicans were so confident that they nominated an individual named Thomas Dewey, whose lone accomplishment was inventing the decimal system. Truman campaigned doggedly around the nation, but his cause appeared to be hopeless. A Dewey victory seemed so inevitable that on election night, the Chicago Tribune printed the famous front-page headline DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. This was because Dewey had defeated Truman, who immediately threatened to drop an atomic bomb on Chicago, so everybody went ha-ha-ha-ha, just kidding, and wisely elected to have the feisty ex-haberdasher have another term.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dave Barry", "slug": "dave-barry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry" }, "book": { "title": "Dave Barry Slept Here", "slug": "dave-barry-slept-here", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 131, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dave_Barry#Dave_Barry_Slept_Here:_A_Sort_of_History_of_the_United_States_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:39" }, { "id": "e41b2355-b607-486b-815a-4a8e97bb9546", "slug": "it-was-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/it-was-too", "text": "It was too much the way of Monseigneur under his reverses as a refugee, and it was much too much the way of native British orthodoxy to talk of this terrible Revolution as if it were the one [and] only harvest ever known under the skies that had not been sown—as if nothing had ever been done, or omitted to be done, that had led to it—as if observers of the wretched millions in France, and of the misused and perverted resources that should have made them prosperous, had not seen it inevitably coming years before, and had not in plain words recorded what they saw. Such vapouring, combined with the extravagant plots of Monseigneur for the restoration of a state of things that had utterly exhausted itself, and worn out Heaven and earth as well as itself, was hard to be endured without some remonstrance by any sane man who knew the truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_XXIV_-_Drawn_to_the_Loadstone_Rock", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:32" }, { "id": "c4935fc0-cabc-4287-aea4-7a82e4824370", "slug": "crush-humanity-out", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/crush-humanity-out", "text": "Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_XV_-_The_Footsteps_Die_Out_For_Ever", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:32" }, { "id": "f14d86f4-5307-484d-abe0-2979c16f14a5", "slug": "it-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/it-was-the", "text": "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_I_-_The_Period", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:31" }, { "id": "516833f0-49db-40c1-8f3c-8c481b933a03", "slug": "fascism-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/winston-s-churchill/the-second-world-war-closing-the-ring/fascism-was-the", "text": "Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism... As Fascism sprang from Communism, so Nazism developed from Fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred movements which were destined soon to plunge the world into more hideous strife, which none can say has ended with their destruction.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Winston S. Churchill", "slug": "winston-s-churchill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/winston-s-churchill" }, "book": { "title": "The Second World War: Closing The Ring", "slug": "the-second-world-war-closing-the-ring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/winston-s-churchill/the-second-world-war-closing-the-ring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 13, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill#The_Second_World_War_(book_series)_(1948%E2%80%931953)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:29" } ] }