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HISTORY
"Human
history has been recorded as a succession of wars and
changing empires. But a ray of hope has been carried
forth throughout the ages by dreamers who have envisioned
a more peaceful, just and sustainable world. The Magna
Carta, the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights were quantum leaps forward in our collective
quest for a better world. We still have far to go, but
we can help create that better world countless dreamers
have imagined, wished for and endeavored to make come
true. Every moment has brought us to this moment. We
are the ones we've been waiting for to manifest our
shared peacetopian dream."
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
"Human
history has been recorded as a succession of wars
and changing empires. But a ray of hope has been
carried forth throughout the ages by dreamers who
have envisioned a more peaceful, just and sustainable
world. The Magna Carta, the US Constitution and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were quantum
leaps forward in our collective quest for a better
world. We still have far to go, but we can help
create that better world countless dreamers have
imagined, wished for and endeavored to make come
true. Every moment has brought us to this moment.
We are the ones we've been waiting for to manifest
our shared peacetopian dream."
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
Freedom
is the most basic of all human rights, and yet throughout
history many individuals and nations have had to struggle
to be free. Much progress has been made in helping
to win freedom for all. But even though all nations
agreed to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights for their citizens, many people are not allowed
these basic liberties.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
As
peacemakers, we are part of a movement that has worked
throughout history towards humanity's greatest goal
- creating a culture of peace.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
Viewed
with one disposition, history has so far been a horrible
accumulation of oppression and suffering. Viewed with
another disposition, however, history has chronicled
humans discovering their own finer potentials and
together mounting heroic offensives to attain them
- against monarchy, feudalism, slavery, Jim Crow racism,
apartheid, sexual subjugation, second class citizenship,
sexism, heterosexism, dictatorship, one party rule,
capitalism, and coordinatorism (calling itself socialism)
- and seeking, in their place, equity, justice, and
freedom. The gains humans have made have been steady
and plentiful. Now a major leap is possible. Consistent
with past efforts, we can now attain fully liberatory
goals, including, I think, participatory economics
and also alternative structures for polity, culture,
and kinship. We have only to make the effort.
-- Michael Albert
*
If the entire history of mankind were condensed into
a single year, our knowledge of how to destroy life
on earth with weapons of mass destruction has been acquired
in the last thirty seconds. Never again will we lack
the knowledge to eliminate the world in a single act
of madness. Therefore, we are faced with a dilemma unique
in our history. We must not only control the weapons
that can kill us, we must bridge the great disparities
of wealth and opportunity among the peoples of the world,
the vast majority of whom live in poverty without hope,
opportunity or choices in life. These conditions are
a breeding ground for division that can cause a desperate
people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort.
Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity,
tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making
the world a better place ...
-- Muhammad
Ali
There
have been periods of history in which episodes of
terrible violence occurred but for which the word
violence was never used...Violence is shrouded in
justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and
these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing
the violence for what it was. The people who burned
witches at the stake never for one moment thought
of their act as violence; rather they though of it
as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The
same can be said of most of the violence we humans
have ever committed.
--Gil Bailie
Everything
now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right
to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in our duty
now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the
racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change
the history of the world.
-- James
Baldwin
...let
us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women
and children. And let us redouble our efforts to build
societies in which slavery truly is a term for the
history books.
-- Ban
Ki-moon
*“Racism
is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed;
for or against, we must take sides. And the history
of the future will differ according to the decision
which we make.”
-- Ruth
Fulton Benedict
*
How
are we going to make our livings in a society becoming
increasingly jobless because of hi-tech and outsourcing?
Where will we get the imagination to recognize that
for most of human history the concept of Jobs didn’t
even exist? Work, as distinguished from Labor, was
done to produce needed goods and services, develop
skills and artistry, and nurture cooperation.
-- Grace
Lee Boggs
History
will judge us on how we respond to the AIDS emergency
in Africa....whether we stood around with watering
cans and watched while a whole continent burst into
flames....or not.
-- Bono
The
marvel of all history is the patience with which men and
women
submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their
government.
-- William E. Borah
The
history of America has been largely created by the deeds
of its working people and their organizations
--there is scarcely an issue that is not influenced by labor’s
organized efforts or lack of them.
-- William Cahn, Labor historian
For
the first time in the history of the world, every
human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous
chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.
~ Rachel
Carson
*
It would be naïve to think that peace and justice
can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of
history will automatically resolve the problems …
However, with faith and perseverance, … complex problems
in the past have been resolved in our search for justice
and peace.
-- Jimmy
Carter
It
seems to rise again when the crisis times come, and
this is a time of most severe crisis, as we all know,
not just for the history of the United States and
the survival indeed of our democracy, but for the
future peace of the world. And never before probably
has the need for interfaith commitment been nearly
as great as it is at this very moment.
-- Walter
Cronkite
History
is the present. That's why every generation writes
it anew.
But what most people think of as history is its end
product, myth.
-- E. L. Doctorow
When
women's true history shall have been written,
her part in the upbuilding of this nation will astound
the world.
-- Abigail
Duniway
The
history of free men is never really written by chance
but by choice; their choice!
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
Neither
a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks
of history to wait for the train of the future to
run over him.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
History
has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern
judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought,
suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom,
against political oppression and economic slavery. --
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
"The ecological crisis is doing what no other crisis
in history has ever done - challenging us to a realization
of a new humanity."
--
Jean
Houston
In
human history there has been a continuous and growing
impulse toward the regeneration and transformation of
humanity.
-- Barbara
Marx Hubbard
*
For the first time in the history of mankind, one
generation literally has the power to destroy the
past, the present and the future, the power to bring
time to an end
-- Hubert
Humphrey
The
goal toward which all history tends is peace, not peace
through the medium of war, not peace through a process
of universal intimidation, not peace through a program
of mutual impoverishment, not peace by any means that
leaves the world too weak or too frightened to go on
fighting, but peace pure and simple based on that will
to peace which has animated the overwhelming majority
of mankind through countless ages. This will to peace
does not arise out of a cowardly desire to preserve
one's life and property, but out of conviction that
the fullest development of the highest powers of men
can be achieved only in a world of peace.
-- Robert
Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977)
*
There
is so much each one of us can do to make a difference.
We are at a dangerous juncture in the history of mankind.
… We need to defend our principles and values, human
rights, civil liberties and the rule of international
law. If we don’t our world will further descend into
a state of chaos.
-- Bianca
Jagger
I like dreams of the future better than the history
of the past.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
In
times of danger large groups rise to the highest pitch
of enthusiasm, courage and sacrifice . . . Mankind
will be refashioned and history rewritten when this
law is understood and obeyed.
-- Helen
Keller
The
lesson of history is clear: democracy always wins
in the end.
-- Marjorie
Kelly
Never
before has man had such capacity to control his
own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer
poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive
human misery. We have the power to make this the
best generation of mankind in the history of the
world -- or to make it the last. -- John
F. Kennedy
And
when at some future date the high court of history
sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether
in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities
to the state, our success or failure, in whatever
office we hold, will be measured by the answers
to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage...
Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third,
were we truly men of integrity... Finally, were
we truly men of dedication? -- John
F. Kennedy, 1961
"Few
will have the greatness to bend history itself, but
each of us can work to change a small portion of events,
and in the total of all those acts will be written
the history of this generation." -- Robert
F. Kennedy
It
is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and
belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man
stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot
of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other
from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
-- Robert
F. Kennedy
"The
course of human history is determined,
not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place
in our hearts."
-- Sir Arthur Kent
*Where
are the unusual individuals, the daring pioneers,
who will devote their lives to making a better history
for humanity? In order to create a new history for
mankind, human beings will first have to create a
new history within themselves. They will have to liberate
themselves from national, religious, racial, and class
prejudices and from enslavement to honor, fame, and
pleasure...
-- Frederick
Kettner
In
spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no
social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous
leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of
nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating
path." --
Martin
Luther King, Jr
"One
of the great liabilities of history is that all too
many people fail to remain awake through great periods
of social change. Every society has its protectors
of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent
who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions.
Today, our very survival depends on our ability to
stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant
and to face the challenge of change." -- Martin
Luther King, Jr
Human
history is work history. The heroes of the people are work
heroes.
-- Meridel Le Sueur
Let
us learn from nuclear radiation victims and prevent
history from repeating itself.
-- Hilda
Lini
"The
disappearance
of utopia brings about a static state of affairs in
which man himself becomes no more than a thing. We would
then be faced with the greatest paradox imaginable….After
a long, torturous, but heroic development, just at the
highest stage of awareness, when history is ceasing
to be blind fate, and is becoming more and more man's
own creation, with the relinquishment of utopia, man
would lose his will to shape history and therewith his
ability to understand it." -- Mannheim
It
is a good moment to repeat that a war is never won.
Never mind that history books tell us the opposite.
The psychological and material costs of war are so high
that any triumph is a pyrrhic victory. Only peace can
be won and winning peace means not only avoiding armed
conflict but finding ways of eradicating the causes
of individual and collective violence: injustice and
oppression, ignorance and poverty, intolerance and discrimination.
We must construct a new set of values and attitudes
to replace the culture of war which, for centuries,
has been influencing the course of civilization. Winning
peace means the triumph of our pledge to establish,
on a democratic basis, a new social framework of tolerance
and generosity from which no one will feel excluded.
-- Federico
Mayor
It
has been a woman's task throughout history to go on
believing in life when there was almost no hope.
-- Margaret
Mead
Slavery
as an institution that degraded man to a thing has never
died out. In some periods of history it has flourished:
many civilizations have climbed to power and glory on
the backs of slaves. In other times slaves have dwindled
in number and economic importance. But never has slavery
disappeared.
-- Milton Meltzer
If
you look at the course of western history you'll see
that we're slowly granting basic rights to everyone.
A long time ago only kings had rights. Then rights
were extended to property-owning white men. Then all
men. Then women. Then children. Then the mentally
retarded. Now we're agonizing over the extension of
basic rights to homosexuals and animals. We need to
finally accept that all sentient creatures are deserving
of basic rights. I define basic rights as this --the
ability to pursue life without having someone else's
will involuntarily forced upon you. Or, as the framers
of the constitution put it, the ability to have "life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
-- Moby
"If
heads of states fail to seize the opportunity of our
entry into the third millennium to provide for a better
government of planet Earth, history will not forgive
them -- if there is a history."
--
Robert
Muller
"We
will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not
be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig
deep in our history and doctrine and remember that
we are not descended from fearful men, not from men
who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to
defend causes which were for the moment unpopular.
We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot
escape responsibility for the result. There is no
way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his
responsibility."
-- Edward
R. Murrow
The whole course of human history may depend on a
change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual
- for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual
that the battle between good and evil is waged and
ultimately won or lost.
-- M.
Scott Peck
Peace
- the word evokes the simplest and most cherished dream
of humanity. Peace is, and has always been, the ultimate
human aspiration. And yet our history overwhelmingly
shows that while we speak incessantly of peace, our
actions tell a very different story.
-- Javier
Perez de Cuellar
The
philosophy that I have worked under most of my life
is that the serious study of natural history is an
activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect
of a person’s life. It ultimately makes people protective
of the environment in a very committed way. It is
my opinion that the study of natural history should
be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.
~ Roger
Tory Peterson
*
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people
tolerate the growth of private power to a point where
it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.
That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government
by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling
private power. Among us today a concentration of private
power without equal in history is growing." -- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
One
of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've
been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any
evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured
us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you
almost never get it back. -- Carl
Sagan
"When
the dust settles and the pages of history are written,
it will not be the angry defenders of intolerance
who have made the difference. The reward will go
to those who dared to step outside the safety of
their privacy in order to expose and rout the prevailing
prejudices."
-- Bishop
John Shelby Spong
While
we are living in the present, we must celebrate life
every day, knowing that we are becoming history with
every work, every action, every deed.
- Mattie Stepanek
*"I
have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor
creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man
is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't
be any worse."
-- Mark
Twain
The
very ink with which all history is written is merely
fluid prejudice.
-- Mark
Twain
The
story of the human race is characterized by efforts
to get along much more than by violent disputes, although
it's the latter that makes the history books. Violence
is actually exceptional. The human race has survived
because of cooperation, not aggression.
-- Gerard Vanderhaar
*
What
we need is not a history of selected races or nations,
but the history of the world void of national bias,
race hate, and religious prejudice.
~Carter
Woodson
*
Those
who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished
lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching
of biography and history.
~Carter
Woodson
To
be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history
not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice,
courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in
this complex history will determine our lives. If
we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to
do something. If we remember those times and places
-- and there are so many -- where people have behaved
magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and
at least the possibility of sending this spinning
top of a world in a different direction. And if we
do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait
for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite
succession of presents, and to live now as we think
human beings should live, in defiance of all that
is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
-- Howard
Zinn
Through
the centuries, the history of peoples is but a lesson in
mutual tolerance.
-- Emile Zola
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