History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Gibbon.
History is like sacred writing, for truth is essential to it. Cervantes.
History is made up of the bad actions of 35 extraordinary men. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions, have been extraordinary men, and nine-tenths of the calamities which have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires. Macaulay.
History is only a confused heap of facts. Chesterfield.
History is philosophy teaching by examples. Quoted by Bolingbroke.
History is properly nothing but a satire on mankind. C. J. Weber.
History is the true poetry. Carlyle.
History shows that the majority of the men 40 who have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion. Heine.
History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution; if not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries. J. S. Mill.
Hitch your waggon to a star. Emerson.