If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.

Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated – Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example.

I’d done a lot of research in Hollywood and in academia. I love research and so I wanted to kind of ground the book in history, in things that I read that were universal and timeless and then kind of let my own experiences sort of filter through all of this history.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

Why should man’s first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction and expenditure?

One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you’d see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans.

How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

I think, in many people’s minds, the Confederate battle flag is not only a memorial to our ancestors, which is perfectly OK, but also a symbol of white superiority and an inclination for people to believe that even slavery would’ve been OK.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.

‚WASP‘ is the only ethnic term that is in fact a term of class, apart from redneck, which is another word for the same group but who are in the lower social strata, so it’s inexplicably tied up with social standing and culture and history in a way that the other hyphenations just are not.

No boxer in the history of boxing has had Parkinson’s. There’s no injury in my brain that suggests that the illness came from boxing.

You are twice as likely to be struck by lightning as you around to be affected by a terrorist event in the United States.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‚I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.‘

And every human being is precious.

Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

What is past is prologue.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.

Judge Afiuni has suffered enough. She has been subject to acts of violence and humiliations to undermine her human dignity. I am convinced that she must be set free.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

The United States is supplying the most modern and sophisticated weaponry to Israel to the tune of billions of dollars every year.

Following the missile crisis, detente started to gain ground between the United States and the Soviet Union, so the international political climate improved after that.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.

In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.

Right after 9-11, as far as I know, one newspaper in the United States had the integrity to investigate opinion in the Muslim world: the ‚Wall Street Journal.‘

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

I think when the president of the United States calls for military action, he should do it for a united people, especially when the methods have been so cruel, so explicitly directed at Americans.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

I was distressed that after 9/11, when the United States was attacked by terrorists, the United States‘ response was to attack Afghanistan, where some of the terrorists had been.

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

At United, there are great traditions, which you can’t buy in one or two years. They are created by victories. You need to prove again and again that you are better than the others. Manchester United have always done this, and are still doing it, so they are the best.

I’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.