#history

Of all the species of literary composition, perhaps biography is the most delightful. The attention concentrated on one individual gives a unity to the materials of which it is composed, which is wanting in general history. ↗

— Robert Hall

#biography #composed #composition #concentrated #delightful

But you have to understand, my beard is so nasty. I mean, it's the only beard in the history of Western civilization that makes Bob Dylan's beard look good. ↗

— Bill Walton

#bob #civilization #dylan #good #history

Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out. ↗

— G. M. Trevelyan

#history #left #might #negatively #out

I'm a history nut. ↗

— Billy Joel

#i #nut

When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, nearly in the same way as when we look at any great mechanical invention as the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting, I speak from experience, will the study of natural history become! ↗

— Charles Darwin

#natural-history #physicalism #experience

History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated. ↗

— Julian Barnes

#time #defeat

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#faith #history #meaning #means #nevertheless

I'm truly worried about the country's direction. I can tell you this categorically, we've got the weakest president and the weakest governor in the history of my 50 years of public service. ↗

— Fritz Hollings

#categorically #country #direction #got #governor

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour. ↗

— Douglas Hurd

#direction #favour #follow #history #noticing

In the world of the present, in our time, we feel that suffering, anguish, the torments of body and soul, are greater than ever before in the history of mankind. ↗

— Eyvind Johnson

#before #body #ever #feel #greater