retelling history Quotes

History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.

I may not live to see our glory But I will gladly join the fight And when our children tell our story They’ll tell the story of tonight

“With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one’s memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said.”

“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”

“But though they willingly let go all the good things that were among those of former ages, yet, if better things are proposed, they cover themselves obstinately with this excuse of reverence to past times.”

“The spectacle of the Tartuffery of old Kant, equally stiff and decent, with which he entices us into the dialectic by-ways that lead (more correctly mislead) to his “categorical imperative”—makes us fastidious ones smile, we who find no small amusement in spying out the subtle tricks of old moralists and ethical preachers.”

“Sometimes, Miss Jarmond, it’s not easy to bring back the past. There are unpleasant surprises. The truth is harder than ignorance.”

“I wanted to tell them, that I knew, that I remembered, and that I could not forget.′

“They may be surprised to hear words of gentle reasonableness coming from the mouths of Indians stereotyped in the American myth as ruthless savages.”

“This is not a cheerful book, but history has a way of intruding upon the present, and perhaps those who read it will have clearer understanding of what the American Indian is, by knowing what he was.”

“Anti-government rhetoric appears to offer a vision of greater efficiency, self-reliance, and personal freedom. Unfortunately, this rhetoric ignores what has historically been most valuable about our skepticism toward government—the emphasis it places on personal responsibility from all citizens. Instead, it argues against the excesses of government but not against those of the marketplace, where there is great power to disrupt the lives of workers, families, and communities.”

“The man’s face and body told the story more eloquently than his words: pain-haunted eyes, shaking hands that could not forget.”

“It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life.”

“In telling the story of my father’s life, it’s impossible to separate the fact from the fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told me. It doesn’t always make sense, and most of it never happened. But that’s what kind of story this is.”

“I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.”

“Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem when all the odds were against him. Determination and persistence pulsate through your bloodline.”

“I had a dream about you last night. We stopped telling each other about our dreams when we realized we were still inside them.”

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.”

“This wrong can never be made right and only the impossible can make me still: can a way be found to make what happened not have happened?”