Jacques Barzun Quotes
I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.
Quotes to Explore
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Islam is unusual in that it's the only one of the great world religions which was born inside recorded history. That there's an enormous amount of factual historical record about the life of a prophet and about social conditions in Arabia at that time. So it's possible to look at the origin of Islam in a scholarly way.
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The Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history. There've been no - no Congress, no administration that has run this far to the left in such a small period of time. And there is a reaction to that.
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Our own CIA has a storied history of interfering in elections. In the late '40s, we shoveled cash into France and Italy after World War II to defeat the Communists who had been part of the wartime resistance to the Nazis and Fascists.
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Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.
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If you are attempting to study American history, and you don't understand the force of white supremacy, you fundamentally misunderstand America.
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Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.
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I think one's history and past is important at a certain time in your life, especially as an artist, just to try to hone in on that.
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All through history, a nation or a civilization's enduring glory is articulated by its mega constructions - the pyramids, the lofty cathedrals of the Christian world.
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If you look at the history of large financial institutions, most of them have succeeded because of a deep presence in their home market.
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I was attending the University of Alberta. I was going to be a high school teacher, like my parents. I failed - no, I didn't fail a class, I just barely passed. I really didn't try. It was Canadian history, through the plays of the time. My God, those were boring plays.
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The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
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I don't think that women being seen as inferior is a prejudice based on male hatred of women. When you look at history, it's a prejudice based on simple fact.
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My family always encouraged my drawing ability. Kids in school who teased me about my reading would get out of their seats and stand behind my desk as I worked and go, 'Wow, you can really draw.' Later, I earned a degree in Fine Art and got a Ph.D. in Art History.
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I want to go down in history.
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NASA projects often have romantic names that link into a long history of exploration and adventure: Atlantis and Discovery, for example.
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I'm sure back in the Greek days or the Roman Empire days, when guys fought in arenas and were fighting lions, people were talking smack. Every era in history has someone talking smack. No way you can have talent and not proclaim your victory.
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The illusion is that most of my work is simply about past events: a point in history and nothing else.
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In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.
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In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.
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You are responsible for your life. You can't keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.
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There was no instruction to be thankful that the Christians were special people, chosen people. There was no nationalistic, political or ethnic superiority to be thankful for.
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I started in London, as a kid. My mother knew I had sort of an inbred talent. She was an actress, so I inherited it from her. But I think I got a lot of it from my grandfather, who was a great politician.
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I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.
