On Society and Solitude, Liberty
and Civilization
The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and hallucinated
create history.
—Gustave Le Bon, 1895
Indeed history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
—Voltaire, 1767
I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as
it is set forth in the annals of history.
—Thomas Henry Huxley, 1889
Happy is the people whose annals in history books are blank.
—Montesquieu
1
History […] is a struggle between ignorance and injustice.
—Mikhail Zhvanetsky, 2010
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other
alternatives.
—Abba Eban, 1970
***
In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition
for social progress.
—Charles William Eliot, 1869
No one in this world, so far as I know […] has ever lost money by underestimating the
intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
—H. L. Mencken, 1926
1
Apparently first quoted, without a date, by Thomas Carlyle in 1864.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. K. Likharev (ed.), Essential Quotes for Scientists and Engineers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63332-5_17
145
and Civilization
The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and hallucinated
create history.
—Gustave Le Bon, 1895
Indeed history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
—Voltaire, 1767
I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as
it is set forth in the annals of history.
—Thomas Henry Huxley, 1889
Happy is the people whose annals in history books are blank.
—Montesquieu
1
History […] is a struggle between ignorance and injustice.
—Mikhail Zhvanetsky, 2010
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other
alternatives.
—Abba Eban, 1970
***
In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition
for social progress.
—Charles William Eliot, 1869
No one in this world, so far as I know […] has ever lost money by underestimating the
intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
—H. L. Mencken, 1926
1
Apparently first quoted, without a date, by Thomas Carlyle in 1864.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. K. Likharev (ed.), Essential Quotes for Scientists and Engineers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63332-5_17
145