# Quotes about history - Quotes: 48 - Authors: 15 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history ## Quotes > 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. Annals Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. Annals Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > Since the foundation of Rome no general had more nobly deserved a triumph than Aurelian. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated from the banks of the Tiber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md) > It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually received into a popular appellation. 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? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the account the women and children who were honoured with the Imperial title. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valour, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > But this splendid exaggeration, which even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind, can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer, the measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his wishes. But neither the belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth of history. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md) > If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > The most civilised nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude institutions of those barbarians we may still distinguish the original principles of our present laws and manners. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the principal objects of history. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced. 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. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/it-is-the.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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? [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [The Napoleon of Notting Hill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill/many-clever-men.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. [James Joyce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce.md) · [Ulysses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/history-stephen-said.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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.” > > I was right. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 420 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/when-israel-was.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Gods Themselves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves.md) · p. 287 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves/there-are-no-happy.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > All history shows that we do not learn from the lessons of the past. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/all-history-shows.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md) > You’re naïve Hari. Or not a historian, which is the same thing. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 457 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/youre-naive-hari.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 237 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/but-it-seemed.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 215 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/i-have-always.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > There is too much history and there is too little of it that is told. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/there-is-too.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 457 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/if-all-human.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md) > 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. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/the-fall-of-empire.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 148 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/francis-quinn-was.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > History, it has been said, never repeats itself but historical situations recur. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 347 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/history-it-has.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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.'... [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [3001 The Final Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/people-are-always.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The City And The Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars.md) · p. 183 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars/it-is-not.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [George W. Bush](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush.md) · [Decision Points](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush/decision-points.md) · p. 476 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-w-bush/decision-points/its-too-early.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md) > 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. Last Evenings On Earth Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > Historian — An unsuccessful novelist. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/historian-an-unsuccessful.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [Poland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland.md) · p. 153 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/second-after-a-painful.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > ...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. [James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [Poland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/the-crucial-battle.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md) > 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. [James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [Poland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/no-invader-has.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [homeland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland.md) > 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. [James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [Poland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/poland/in-a-small.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Karl Marx](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx.md) · [The German Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/the-first-premise.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md) > 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. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court/why-it-was.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md) > 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." [Dave Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry.md) · [Dave Barry Slept Here](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here.md) · p. 126 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here/stalins-strategy-at-the.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Dave Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry.md) · [Dave Barry Slept Here](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here.md) · p. 131 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barry-slept-here/in-1948-the.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/it-was-too.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/crush-humanity-out.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/it-was-the.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > 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. The Second World War: Closing The Ring · p. 13 Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md)