Ken Burns Quotes

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

As barbaric is we are, it's a miracle we haven't blown ourselves off the face of the earth so far.

Even if we remember the past, odds are good we'll still repeat it.

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.

Why do people want to kill and maim and pillage? We're all in it together.

The two World Wars came in part, like much modern literature and art, because men, whose nature is to tire of everything in turn... tired of common sense and civilization.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.

History repeats itself. So you might wanna pay attention.

Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.

One ... aspect of the case for World War II is that while it was still a shooting affair it taught us survivors a great deal about daily living which is valuable to us now that it is, ethically at least, a question of cold weapons and hot words.

History, we know, is apt to repeat itself, and to foist very old incidents upon us with only a slight change of costume.

Each generation thinks it fights new battles. But the battles are the same. Only the people are different.

Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind is unteachable?

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.

Some say, 'Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.' I say, 'Those who ignore history are in for a big surprise.'

War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.

We do not just risk repeating history if we sweep it under the carpet, we also risk being myopic about our present.

Maybe if people started to listen, history would stop repeating itself.

As human beings, we are always torn between individual freedom and the ability of choose our actions, and the need for at least enough social structure so that anarchy, chaos, and warlordery - or the war of all against all - can be avoided.

Peace for any prolonged period of time is impossible. Humans have a natural thirst for chaos and war is the most readily available form of chaos.

I wonder, sometimes, whether men and women in fact are capable of learning from history--whether we progress from one stage to the next in an upward course or whether we just ride the cycles of boom and bust, war and peace, ascent and decline.

If war was hell and only hell and there were no other colors in the palate I don't think people would continue to make war.