Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. quotes

Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it. (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The use of history as therapy means the corruption of history as history. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Righteousness is easy in retrospect. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Television has spread the habit of instant reaction and stimulated the hope of instant results. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
We are not going to achieve a new world order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The purpose of democratic statecraft is, or should be, to find the means of ordered liberty in a world condemned to everlasting change. View quote
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Let us by all means teach black history, African history, women's history, Hispanic history, Asian history. But let us teach them as history, not as filiopietistic commemoration. The purpose of history is to promote not group self-esteem, but understanding of the world and the past, dispassionate analysis, judgment, and perspective, respect for divergent cultures and traditions, and unflinching protection for those unifying ideas of tolerance, democracy, and human rights that make free historical inquiry possible. (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)