History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.

The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organisation of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature.

Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than humans would at first suppose.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

History does nothing, possesses no enormous wealth, fights no battles. It is rather man, the real, living man, who does everything, possesses, fights. It is not History, as if she were a person apart, who uses men as a means to work out her purposes, but history itself is nothing but the activity of men pursuing their purposes.

The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves.