#histories

A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties. ↗

— Franklin Pierce

#anomaly #attempting #complete #exist #governments

Free nations with different histories, economies and a vast amount of stubborn pride will never achieve complete agreement, even when they desire the same objectives. ↗

— Arthur Hays Sulzberger

#agreement #amount #complete #desire #different

Take your place, then. Look at what happened from every side and consider all the other ways it could have gone. Consider, even, an Africa unconquered altogether. Imagine those first Portuguese adventurers approaching the shore, spying on the jungle’s edge through their fitted brass lenses. Imagine that by some miracle of dread or reverence they lowered their spyglasses, turned, set their riggings, sailed on. Imagine all who came after doing the same. What would that Africa be now? All I can think of is the other okapi, the one they used to believe in. A unicorn that could look you in the eye. ↗

— Barbara Kingsolver

#alternative-histories #freedom #freedom

There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#arrive #bright #case #condition #fairy

Political corruption is endemic all over this country, in some places worse than others, right? On crime, you have all the major American cities where the crime rates at different points in their histories, have spiked dramatically. ↗

— Mitch Landrieu

#american cities #cities #corruption #country #crime

The histories of mankind are histories only of the higher classes. ↗

— Thomas Malthus

#higher #histories #mankind #only

I don't think you really can send an exact message, because any two viewers are so disparate, in terms of their backgrounds, their point of view, their histories, that there's no telling what that message might be. ↗

— Martin Mull

#backgrounds #because #disparate #exact #histories

When I begin a book, I inevitably discover many things along the way, about the characters, their past histories and the political intrigues that surround them. This discovery process is vital, and I would not prejudice it by deciding too much in advance. ↗

— David Brin

#advance #along #begin #book #characters

Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood. ↗

— Soren Kierkegaard

#concepts #histories #homesickness #incapable #individuals

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends. ↗

— Alexander Pope

#examples #fidelity #friends #full #histories