He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history; and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
quote by A.J.P. Taylor

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Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
quote by A.J.P. Taylor

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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History
History is sad.
It makes me mad
that we have learned nothing.
History is the past.
It goes so fast
and still we have learned nothing.
Today's not history
and so it's a mystery
why we repeat the same old nothing?
poem by Edwina Reizer

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What Have We Learned From History
What have we learned from history little if anything
Of war men and war heroes their praises we still sing
Humankind have come far in technology and on the moon surface have trod
And still we fight for our Nation's flag and go to war for our God.
What have we learned from history not much if you ask me
We still have wars and famines and we still have poverty
And we still have this awful thing called ethnic cleansing and we still have refugees
And we still wage war on Mother Earth and we still pollute her seas.
What have we learned from history if anything at all
Before the baby has to walk the baby has to learn to crawl
And life is just a learning curve or so we have been told
But few of those who lack wisdom in their twenties grow wiser as they grow old.
What have we learned from history we have learned to populate
And by bulldozing more virgin woodlands more diseases we create
We pollute Mother Earth who feeds us and our successes seem so few
And that the World would do nicely without us only happens to be true.
What have we learned from history go ask one wiser than I
The World is far more polluted now than when I was a boy
And history has a habit of repeating itself a wise one once did say
And I've not learned from history though I grow old and gray.
poem by Francis Duggan

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Tales of my past
Don't write me down in history,
In reference to my past deeds,
Works I derived no joy from,
Or mistakes of those years.
Don't write me down in history,
The ages gone show little of what I am,
That part of me is truly done,
My dreams now can say it all.
Don't write me down in history,
The lessons of life flows in my blood,
My blunders are now my teachers,
The scars now my daily pledge.
Don't write me down in history,
I am yet to achieve perfection,
Still I strive for redemption,
Searching the soil for my lost glory,
Don't write me down in history,
The tales of my past I recall,
That was then, this is me,
Woes to your judgment.
poem by Venessa Ambrose

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Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
quote by Winston Churchill

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Man In The Mirror...
mystery man, history man, dangerous man,
all that are man.
but one man sang,
mystery man,
this man sang,
thrilled the stage with his ways,
danced and raced with out any shame,
mystery man, history man, dangerous man.
He danced thrilling the world,
twirling across the world with his spin,
he with no twin
the world sang with this man,
he made history with history man,
god by his side, he who was never out of sight,
humble was this man, awards he had won,
healing is what he done.
mystery man, history man, dangerous man
his music were thrilling,
his lyrics were smoothing,
his dancing were surprisily healing.
this man who sang was the man in the mirror......
poem by Angel Diaz

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We Have Not Learned That Much From The Past
We have not learned that much from past history the men of power repeat the same mistake
By threatening war on the Iraqi people for in war there's death and suffering and heartbreak
And in war there's never happiness and laughter the bomber jets they dropp death from the sky
Why to kill or capture the Iraqi leader will so many innocents have to suffer and die? .
I wonder when I hear talk of 'A Just War' since any war it never has been just
And war gives rise to vengeance and to hatred and between peoples build the barriers of mistrust,
Who ever coined that phrase was far from clever though many of those words have taken note
And too many far too many silly people that awful saying are too inclined to quote.
We have not learned much from man's past history if we have learned anything at all
The innocents of Baghdad and Basra will suffer when the big bombs from the night sky will fall
For bombs don't always hit their designated targets and for war mistakes it's the innocents who pay
With their lives or the most horrific injuries and the scars of war till death with them will stay.
We have not learned much from the mistakes of our forefathers for talk of war we hear now every day
And only on the day of the Election do the people ever seem to have a say
And the hawkish leaders who see war as okay from the path that leads to war cannot be cowed
They never seem to listen to their people though the voice of protest in their ears ring loud.
poem by Francis Duggan

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History is a living horse laughing at a wooden horse. History is a wind blowing where it listeth. History is no sure thing to bet on. History is a box of tricks with a lost key. History is a labyrinth of doors with sliding panels, a book of ciphers with the code in a cave of the Saragossa sea. History says, if it pleases, Excuse me, I beg your pardon, it will never happen again if I can help it.
quote by Carl Sandburg

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Defining History
DEFINING HISTORY *
History is neither for us nor against us;
It is a record of our accumulating past!
That past which we humans had once made,
And we can learn from our mistakes, it is often
said!
A wit had once put things together, saying; -
'History dose not repeat itself, only historians
repeat each other! ! '
'Civilization is a movement and not a condition,
a voyage, not a harbour, ' said Arnold Toynbee;
'It has the right and the capacity to choose its destiny! '
But many others did not seem to agree!
The early Mayans said that History repeats itself in
every 260 cyclic years,
History is not cyclic said Tonybee, to allay our fears!
The Greek Plato had felt that History was rather cynical;
While Oswald Spengler the German, had similar
views held!
Spengler said that all things that grow, must mature,
decay and decline;
The Western Civilization was no exception of any
kind!
But Carrol Quigley, a scientist by training, could not
accept any of the above views!
And in his 'The Evolution of Civilisation ', he pays
History its dues!
Quigley attempts to create an acceptable synthesis,
Which the critics praised with positive comments!
Quigley advocated that systems come into being
adapted to their environment;
Which changes and evolves with a gradual motion,
While he has laid down the seven stages of this
evolution! **
And he concludes by declaring with some flourish,
That those civilizations which cannot adapt to such
changes, -
Will one day perish!
- Raj Nandy
New Delhi
31 Aug 08
(* I tried to pay my tribute to three of our greatest Historians, -
being an old student of History. Spengler is unpopular in the
West.
** Mixture, Gestation, Expansion, Age of Conflict, Universal Empire,
Decay and Invasion.)
Black History Month
In January...
There they are making history.
In February...
There they are making history.
In March...
There they are making history.
In April...
There they are making history.
In May...
There they are making history.
In June...
There they are making history.
In July...
There they are making history.
In August...
There they are making history.
In September...
There they are making history.
In October...
There they are making history.
In November...
There they are making history.
In December...
There they are making history.
But...
It's nice to know
The shortest month of the year
Was chosen to celebrate
The great deeds of African-Americans!
However...
It is those LEAP YEARS,
That really have the blacks jumping for joy!
Note: 'Black History Month' along with other
works of interest can be found in...
*'MindPrints from Untouched Places-VOL I'*
~Now available online at a PC near you~
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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History why do we care
History
a famous person dies
History
a war rages
History
a new invention
History
a building opens
History
what happens if something happens to me
is that history?
no....
So why do we care.....
poem by Andrea Thepoet

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The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.
quote by George Frost Kennan

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The History Teacher
Woman!
Where exactly
Did you put me
In the women's history?
Am I History?
Or a part of it?
And for how long you are lacking me in;
Between
Your History,
Women's History, and
Your archives?
Does time make sense to you
As a History teacher or
As a History professor?
Cause', History, buying time, and rejuvenation
Are for emperors.
Are you making me
An emperor?
Or a Faeroe?
If so,
How precise your are?
And if you can't feel my present presence
how possibility could you feel me through your archives?
poem by Atef Ayadi

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I Know My History
Mmmmm, Yeah.
I was a freckle-faced kid with a buck tooth grin.
I was cuttin' her grass when she asked me in.
Learned everything that I needed to learn,
When I was sixteen, know what I mean.
Whoo, ooh, ooh, grew up fast.
Fin'lly found somethin' I was really good at.
When it comes to love,
I know what I'm talkin' about.
I know my history, but good lovin' gets me.
It ain't no mystery, just kiss me: kiss me, baby.
I never learned my lesson: I'm pretty good at guessin'.
I been down that road a time or two or three:
I know my history.
Come a little closer, let me show you what it's all about.
Oh, I know my history, baby.
You can second guess me all night long,
Make yourself believe that it's all wrong.
Sooner or later, girl,
You're gonna see you can trust me.
Once again there, whoo, ooh, ooh, step into school:
Let me show you a thing or two:
When it comes to love,
I know what I'm talkin' about.
I know my history, but good lovin' gets me.
It ain't no mystery, just kiss me: kiss me, baby.
I never learned my lesson: I'm pretty good at guessin'.
I been down that road a time or two or three:
I know my history.
Don't worry 'bout tomorrow, come along girl.
Got his own road on a right cool world.
Take my hand, it's just you an' me.
Tonight's the night we're makin' history.
Instrumental Break.
(A little, little history.)
(Whoo, ooh, ooh.)
I know my history, yeah, good lovin' gets me.
It ain't no mystery, just kiss me: (Kiss me.)
Come a little closer, let me show you what it's all about.
Let me show you, baby, what my love is really all about.
song performed by by Van Zant

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The History of Now
The recording of culture is history;
but our culture is more than that.
It's the world of human action,
and the myths we make of the fact.
The recording of history is culture,
but our history is more than that.
It informs a hidden agenda.
Unconscious of motive we act.
It's the history of now, the history of now.
It's only the present that exists as endowed.
It's the history of now. The moment - KAPOW!
That knocks you right over and muddies your brow.
Through the prism of language, we know what we know.
We carry our baggage and stories of woe.
Victor and vanquished pride cannot budge,
the dead weight of hatred and ancestral grudge.
We fight our good fights with our hand on our heart;
the music is swelling as loved ones depart.
As sheep to the slaughter, the script cannot chart,
a course more ignoble: the propagandist's art.
The recording of history is culture,
but our culture is more than that.
More than the great individuals,
the scholars so love in their tracts.
The recording of culture is history;
but our history is more than that.
Not simple dates or statistics,
the full horror and gore still attracts.
It's the history of now, the history of now.
A strange contradiction that makes sense somehow.
It's the history of now, a mystery and shroud.
The past and the future: best fiction allowed.
poem by David SmithWhite

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I may now, I suppose, say it without offence: I think that the distrust of the new studies, at all events of the study of Modern History, was owing quite as much to the management of their advocates as to the conservative habits of the opponents.
William Stubbs in Seventeen lectures on the study of medieval and modern history and kindred subjects (1887)

Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Our History
If my history would end here
I know
your history will begin.
Our history
happens not at the same time
how I wish I could see
what history you will make.
If my history would end here
I know
your history will begin.
poem by Marites C. Cayetano

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History may be past
History may be past
Embedded in memory and may not last
It is glorious past with memorable events
Preserved with honor as unforgettable counts
As the things can be clearly seen in mirror
History will site you mistakes and errors
It may not repeat in near future or for times to come
We take pride for being a part and welcome
How many bloody wars have been fought?
Was peace not explored or sought?
Why so much bitterness about past?
Why still not coming to terms very fast?
How can I forget that number of times country was invaded?
How can that easily it be wiped out that in problem we were landed?
The poverty, helplessness and backwardness come before like picture?
Making me restless with burning rage at heart for future
I am for sure and everybody will share
You can not equate past with future
The present is in between to balance
It must be thought over and given chance
We can’t carry bitterness all along
History may not pardon us for pursuing wrong
If we had rich tradition in forgiving the evil and past
We must surely feel elated with very good start
We have witnessed hostility running in for decades
It has no reasons to be continued for indefinite days
Each passing day is proving costly and very deadly
We must learn lesson from it and end it immediately
It is invaluable treasure to have it as glorious history
New generation can take pride in not feel sorry
It is freedom and free environment that we intended to give
For our lapses they may surely understand forgive
History can be considered as past milestones
The present can not ignore it and consider as bye gone
We have come to stay here as inseparable part
Even thought it may be unworthy or glorious past
What does this indicate in particular?
Do we want to create the situation like similar?
It is thing of past and must be buried sincerely
We have to pick positive threads and weave it neatly
It will be great tribute to our elderly statesman
They left behind for us a rich and healthy tradition
It is for us to judge the past and shape the destiny
Time may force us to explain our conduct to many
It is our duty to preserve
Assess the situation and observe
Freedom and past must be close to our mind
Yet another similar situation always too find
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal

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I like historical pieces. History was my favorite subject in school, it was the only subject I excelled in. I love the idea of history and the idea that we may have the opportunity to learn from our past mistakes.
quote by Cary Elwes

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Take me to History,
Take me to History,
Take me to History and never see the mistakes,
Take me to that Killings,
Moving on silent,
Like I never knew all that I was doing,
It was mine,
That you saw the your’s coming in the World,
It was Written,
That your’s was never taken,
Take me to History,
That you never meant to Kill Christ,
Humanity is going to foolishness in losing one sheep,
Death is gonna be easy cause life is Hard,
Take me to History,
That the Cowards of Truth will never see the son,
Whatsoever Conquers,
Is the son that is never determined to lose?
It ain’t hard to tell,
That the lacing was all black,
The lace was more than never enough,
You are not the dude that is all losing like foolishness.
poem by Maxim Muyu

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