Jurgen Habermas Quotes

Men make history, but they can never know the history they are making.

In retrospect, the Millennium marked only a moment in time. It was the events of September 11 that marked a turning point in history, where we confront the dangers of the future and assess the choices facing humankind.

Well goodness knows, goodness knows what historians will write.

The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn't feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong.

Being in London has really taught me how important history is. Just having information of the past. It helps you predict the future, which is all we really have as, you know, humans.

People who are creating history don't realize they're creating it at the time it's happening.

I really don't know what happens next -- one so seldom does.

The Future is hidden even from those who are forging it.

There's no such thing as a foreseeable future.

We were making the future and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!

Historians often find important decisions few knew were important at the time.

Since September 11, 2001, the real world has become too scary for a lot of people to be with - all the time.

The big things are the things that you don't expect.

We expect surprises. There has to be surprises.

In many cases, if we knew what it would take, we might have thought twice about it, so it's often wonderful that we don't have hindsight.

After Notre Dame, what is there?

You're not always going to have a perfect day. You're not always going to have the day that you envision.

You cannot guess what happens in the future.

Honestly, who knows 100 per cent what they will do next year?

You never know what could happen.

1975 is as much a historical document as 1803.

We can't predict the future.

Anything Can Happen, on the other hand, is not only about the atrociousness of the September 11 attack, it is also a premonition of the deadly retaliation that was bound to come.

Indeed, none but the Deity can tell what is good luck and what is bad before the returns are all in.

Contingency is rich and fascinating; it embodies an exquisite tension between the power of individuals to modify history and the intelligible limits set by laws of nature. The details of individual and species's lives are not mere frills, without power to shape the large-scale course of events, but particulars that can alter entire futures, profoundly and forever.