The great wars of the present age are the effects of the study of history.

What a school of politeness is such a contemplation of the past! To take everything objectively, to be angry at nothing, to love nothing, to understand everything-- makes one gentle and pliable.

History is nothing more than the belief in the senses, the belief in falsehood.

Only strong personalities can endure history, the weak ones are extinguished by it

Much that is dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who carries out are different people. The former does not behold the sight and does not experience the strong impression on the imagination. The latter obeys a superior and therefore feels no responsibility for the acts.

In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary.