Historian Quotes (0-)

“Both Ukrainians and Russians claim Yaroslav the Wise as one of their eminent medieval rulers, and his image appears on the banknotes of both countries. The Ukrainian bill depicts Yaroslav with a Ukrainian-style moustache in the tradition of Prince Sviatoslav and the Ukrainian Cossacks. On the Russian note, we see a monument to him as the legendary founder of the Russian city of Yaroslavl, first mentioned in a chronicle seventeen years after his death. The Russian bill shows Yaroslav with a beard in the tradition of Ivan the Terrible and the Muscovite tsars of his era.”

“The significance of neo-Nazism in Ukraine and the at least tacit official U.S support or tolerance for it should be clearly understood.”

“A collective insanity seemed to have seized the nation and turned them into something worse than beasts. The princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette's intimate friend, was literally torn to pieces; her head, breasts, and pudenda were paraded on pikes before the windows of the Temple, where the royal family was imprisoned, while a man boasted drunkenly at a cafe that he had eaten the princess' heart, which he probably had.”

“A collective insanity seemed to have seized the nation and turned them into something worse than beasts. The princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette's intimate friend, was literally torn to pieces; her head, breasts, and pudenda were paraded on pikes before the windows of the Temple, where the royal family was imprisoned, while a man boasted drunkenly at a cafe that he had eaten the princess' heart, which he probably had.”

“The crowds on Haight Street got bigger and bigger and bigger [after the Human Be-In]. Word spread like fire. Everybody came to San Francisco.”

“There was never a moment in our history when slavery was not a sleeping serpent. It lay coiled up under the table during the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention. Owing to the cotton gin, it was more than half awake. Thereafter, slavery was on everyone's mind, though not always on his tongue.”

“The founding myth of 2014 and the war in eastern Ukraine – that Russian-speaking Ukrainians would gladly join Russia – did not result in a pro-Russia groundswell of opinion across the country. While this was realised in Crimea and parts of Donbas, Russophone cities such as Kharkiv and Odesa remain Ukrainian. “This was a huge miscalculation and disappointment for the authors of the attempted Russian takeover of eastern Ukraine,” Plokhy said.”

“Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted for who they were. The Witnesses were persecuted wholly for their religious beliefs and because they did not believe in racism, in swearing allegiance to an evil, worldly dictator. And they didn’t believe in fighting his war. . . . Jews struggled to maintain their values and their faith against tremendous opposition. The museum celebrates such spiritual resistance. For that reason, this institution also acknowledges and admires the faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses during the Nazi era.”

“Mount Ida is the highest Mountaine in Creta, and by the computation of Shepheards feete, amounteth to sixe miles of height: It is over-clad even to the toppe with Cypre trees, and good store of medicinable hearbes: insomuch that the beasts which feede thereupon, have their teeth gilded, like to the colour of Gold: Mount Ida, of old was called Phelorita, by some Cadussa, but modernely Madura: It is sayd by some Historians, that no venemous animall can live in this Ile; but I saw the contrary: For I kild on a Sunday morning hard by the Sea-side, and within two miles of Rethimos, two Serpents and a Viper: One of which Serpents, was above a yard and halfe in length, for they being all three rolling within the coverture of the dry sands, my right legge was almost in their reverence before I remarked the danger: Wherefore many build upon false reports, but experience teacheth men the trueth.Some others also Historize, that if a Woman here, bite a man any thing hard, he will never recover: and that there is an hearbe called Allimos in this Iland, which if one chaw in his mouth, he shall not feele hunger for foure and twenty howres: all which are meere fabulous, such is the darkenesse of cloudy inventions.Descending from this Mountaine, I entred in a faire plaine, beautified with many Villages; in one of which, I found a Grecian Bishop, who kindly presented me with grapes of Malvasie, and other things, for it was in the time of their vintage. To carry these things he had given me, he caused to make ready an Asse, and a Servant, who went with me to Candy, which was more then fifteene miles from his house. True it is, that the best sort of Greekes, in visiting other, doe not use to come empty handed, neither will they suffer a stranger to depart without both gifts and convoy.I remember along this sassinous and marine passage, I found three fountaines gushing forth of a Rocke, each one within a yard of other, having three sundry tasts: the first water was exceeding light, and sweet; the middle or second, marvelous sowre and heavy: the third was bitter and extraordinary salt: so that in so short bounds so great difference, I never found before, nor afterward.”

“One hundred years before Martin Luther King, he said he had a sublime dream: the lands of the Cruzeiro, without kings and without slaves.”

“He came like a sledgehammer, like a giant out of the mountain with a sledgehammer, writing with a sledgehammer...”

“He's one of the most fascinating characters [modern] Greek history has produced, but after all the sound and fury, he signifies nothing.”

“One cannot question the genuineness of Jefferson’s liberal dreams. He was one of the first statesmen in any part of the world to advocate concrete measures for restricting and eradicating Negro slavery.”

“Greb may have been the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, who ever lived. Certainly, he was among the top 2 or 3. He combined the speed of Ray Robinson, the durability of Jim Jeffries, the stamina of Henry Armstrong, and the unbridled ferocity of Stanley Ketchel with a will to win unsurpassed in the annals of sport. At his peak, he was unbeatable, defeating virtually every middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight of his generation. A great, great fighter.”