Christmas Every Day

“You should never ask a historian to predict the future—we have enough trouble predicting the past.”

A.J.P. Taylor

I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills.

— Arnold Toynbee

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

— Edward Gibbon

“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure”.

— Thucydides

“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

— Thucydides

“I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.”

— Edward Gibbon

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

— Edward Gibbon

“We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing”

— Pericles, in Herodotus Histories

“All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.”

— Tacitus