Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

A lack of the historical sense is the hereditary fault of all philosophers.

History belongs above all to the man... who needs models, teachers, comforters and cannot find them among his contemporaries.

Socrates - If all goes well, the time will come when one will take up the memorabilia of Socrates rather than the Bible as a guide to morals and reason... Socrates excels the founder of Christianity in being able to be serious cheerfully and in possessing that wisdom full of roguishness that constitutes the finest state of the human soul. And he also possessed the finer intellect.

Whoever has overthrown an existing law of custom has hitherto always first been accounted a bad man: but when, as did happen, the law could not afterwards be reinstated, and this fact was accepted, the predicate gradually changed. History treats almost exclusively of these bad men who subsequently became good men!

As soon as it becomes possible, by dint of a strong will, to overthrow the entire past of the world, then, in a single moment, we will join the ranks of independent gods. World history for us will then be nothing but a dreamlike otherworldly being.