💬 Quotes

"When civilization [urbanization] increases, the available labor again increases. In luxury, again, each single article is worked at several times, and skilled labor is in high demand."

"The past resembles the future as water resembles water."

"Dynasties have a natural life span like individuals."

"Injustice ruins civilization. The ruin of civilization entails the downfall of the dynasty."

"Le bon historien ressemble à l'ogre de la légende. Là où il flaire la chair humaine, là il sait que là est son gibier."

"Comprendre le présent par le passé, c'est, certes, la fonction première que beaucoup assignent à notre étude. Mais savoir aussi comprendre le passé par le présent n'est pas moins plein de services."

"Les hommes ressemblent plus à leurs temps qu'à leurs pères."

"L'incompréhension du présent naît fatalement de l'ignorance du passé. Mais il n'est peut-être pas moins vain de s'épuiser à comprendre le passé si l'on ne sait rien du présent."

"Derrière les vestiges concrets, les écrits, les institutions, ce sont les hommes qu'il faut saisir."

"Toute science suppose, dans ses méthodes, un accord constant entre le νοῦς et la main."

"Knowledge is that which comes nearest to being none other than the divinity of things."

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider."

"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."

"Men ought to know that in the theater of human life it is only for God and angels to be spectators."

"Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority."

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator."

"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a free people can pour out."

"I knew, wherever I was, that General Grant would move against Lee, and I knew that if he were repulsed, he would try it again and again, until it was a success."

"We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."

"Glory is all moonshine; even opening the campaign to Atlanta is not so flattering to me as is the fact that a district of country is able to subsist itself and needs no supplies from the rear."